Sideswipe: September 4: Planning goes haywire

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"Once upon a time we had a traffic island near our house which worked perfectly, but at great expense it was removed and a pedestrian crossing placed about 50m away," writes Ailsa. "There was already a pedestrian crossing nearby, which meant cars had to stop twice in a few seconds. We needed one in the other direction, where there is a dangerous T junction and heavy traffic. I need eyes in the back of my head every time I cross it because cars travel at speed to turn right. But do we have a crossing there? No. Also, there are bus shelters in our area which are no longer in use, but there are four stops which are currently used but with no shelters. Little wonder commuters don't get the feeder buses."

Animal facts

1. When polar bears hunt walruses, they don't normally kill any of them. The walruses trample each other and do the job for the polar bear.

2. The fingerprints of a koala are so indistinguishable from humans that they have on occasion been confused at a crime scene.

3. Mantis shrimp eyes are so fish-eyed everything looks smaller than them, making them attack anything. Even sharks. And, apparently, if a mantis shrimp was as big as a human it could throw a baseball into orbit.

4. Male giraffes will head-butt female giraffes in the bladder to make them pee, so they can taste their urine to know when she's fertile.

5. Wasps can live underwater for at least five minutes.

6. Rats reportedly will make a laugh-like sound when tickled (used to work in a lab where we provided environmental enrichment to rats and they used to "laugh" when new stimuli were placed in the environment). (Via Reddit)

Pointless letters

I swear, each year it feels like the letters complaining about Christmas starting earlier every year are starting earlier every year. (Via @Pointlessletters)