Sideswipe: November 7: Ominous sign in Pt Chev

Ominous sign placement spotted in Pt Chevalier. I was hoping that the puppy was alive and not destined for landfill! To my relief ... yes

Job comes at a cost

A reader was applying for a job with a large company and was surprised to see the application came at a cost.

"The application goes through to an Australian recruitment site," she explains. "Two of the drop-down menus ask you if you are prepared to go through a full criminal history check 'at your own expense' and then if you'd be prepared to go through a drug and alcohol and full medical assessment 'at your own expense'. The drop-down menu gives you two options: yes or no. I put 'no' not because I refuse to give permission for a criminal check or a drug and alcohol check, but because I don't believe this should be at my expense. Especially if you then don't get the role! I put the application through and received an immediate response telling me that 'after careful consideration my application was not successful'. I think this is awful for those, unlike myself, who desperately need jobs!"

How big tech navigates women's bodies

"Last week I suddenly began getting mummy and baby ads on Facebook," tweets Talia Shadwell. "I don't have children. But suddenly sponsored ads for baby clothing, children's books and pregnancy health were cluttering my newsfeeds. I chalked it up to one of two things — I'm 30 now and it made sense that my social algorithms might start trolling me like an overbearing relative asking when I'm going to get married. I also have some friends with babies. I wondered if it could be because I frequently 'liked' posts featuring other people's kids. And then I made an interesting connection. Like many women I know, I use a period tracker app. I opened it today and found I hadn't logged last month's cycle — it flashed a warning that I was very 'late'. Because I had forgotten to log a cycle, the app likely concluded I was pregnant and began communicating the information to third-party apps and algorithms. I corrected my cycle in the tracker app and just like that, the ads have stopped. I find several aspects of this unsettling. Firstly, the likelihood in future that my technology is likely to know I am pregnant before I do. The second is it assumed that I would be happy about being pregnant right now so began sending cheery mummy ads. The other aspect — which I found very funny — was how quickly the algorithms were eager to sell my mythical unborn baby things."

Seeing red

Russell Preston writes: "Had to share this. Sitting at Eden Park during the recent triple-header and the phone goes off to someone sitting behind us. Person answers: 'I'm at Eden Park at the rugby league,' (Where are you sitting?) 'I'm sitting in the North Stand' (Whereabouts?) 'Next to a guy in a red jacket.' I thought, that'll narrow it down for the caller!"