Sideswipe: August 2: Bikini bottom found

A SpongeBob type creature.

A marine scientist spotted a "real-life" SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star and was quite surprised that the depictions in the quirky cartoon weren't all that realistic. Christopher Mah told Business Insider: "Very few of them resemble SpongeBob's boxy shape. But the SpongeBob-like sponge in the image, belongs to the genus Hertwigia."

He was surprised by its bright yellow colour, which is unusual for the deep sea. That far down, most things are orange or white to help them camouflage in the dimly lit environment. "The sea star nearby, known as Chondraster, has five arms covered with tiny suckers. They allow it to creep across the ocean floor and attach itself to rocks and other organisms. Chondraster stars can be dark pink, light pink, or white. This star's colour "was a bright pink that strongly evoked Patrick", Mah said. Another deviation from the TV show is that sea stars are liable to eat sponges.

Eye of the persimmon

Eaten by Jenny Blomeley of Tairua.

Downplaying gold

Rowers Fintan McCarthy and Paul O'Donovan made sporting history on Thursday by becoming the first Irish winners of an Olympic gold medal in their sport. They also claimed the first gold for Ireland in this Olympics.

At the press conference shortly after their win, when they were asked how being an Olympic gold medal-winning athlete sounded, O'Donovan said: "It's all right, yeah. You can't complain about it really. I wouldn't go around introducing myself like that though." On Twitter, Stephen Buggy explained: "He's afraid of being accused of having 'notions'. If any of us deserve notions, I think gold medallists do." His mum was on TV later and said, "If he was any more laid back he'd be a corpse." She also complained he didn't reply to her emails and "when they get older they forget they have a mammy at home who still worries about them".

Not paranormal

"Just moved into the house," writes a reader. "Slept in the main floor bedroom the first few nights so we could paint our room. I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Didn't turn on the light because I 'knew' where the bathroom was. All of a sudden I'm in a pitch black portal. I can feel the walls on either side but ahead, nothing. I called out my husband's name a couple times and asked 'where am I? Help me'. He replied: 'Hon, you walked into the cedar closet. Try door number two."'