KEY POINTS:
Deceptive packaging. The box for this paddling pool warns buyers, "Product may not be as appears on image". Like half the size maybe? (Source: Consumerist.com)
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Lesley Opie says the food police have finally had their way with school fundraising: "Last week a
little girl knocked on our door - she was fundraising for Devonport Primary School. But when we looked at what was on offer our hearts sank - she had small packets of four dried apricots or two dried nectarines at the cost of $1. We bought a packet of each and felt totally ripped off but how could we not help this little girl in her effort to relieve herself of these "healthy" snacks? I kept thinking about how much I would prefer a chocolate bar."
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Neville Guy agrees with an LA vehicle testing assistant about on-ramp traffic lights. "It's got to be the stupidest invention - those traffic lights on the on-ramps. The signal flashes either red or green and it carefully allows cars into traffic at commuting hours. It's supposed to keep merging cars from clogging traffic, although of course it's pointless. But I'm grateful for the lights too because this is the perfect spot for a drag race."
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Postal bosses in England have decided one road is "too steep" and are cancelling the service to 11 homes in Booze (yes, you read right) in the Yorkshire Dales. The residents now face a 48km round trip to Richmond to collect the mail. A health and safety report said the route was too dangerous - and it was feared it could make one postie's "bad back" worse.
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A reader has some technical advice for Martin and his old TV, so he can see the score graphic: "Go to tv3.co.nz, on the left-side menu click on 'Contact us'. Go to a list of frequently asked questions and look for 'TV3 has gone widescreen, how do I change the settings on Sky?' and follow the instructions. If he selects the letterbox option, he'll be able to see the whole picture. It'll have blank lines at the top and bottom but the graphics will be visible. The decoder set-up pin is 0000 by default."
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Everything is solved for rugby fans then - or maybe not. Mike writes: "Hallelujah to the man who complained about the positioning of the rugby scores by Sky. Do they think everyone has a wide screen? I think Sky could probably drop the divorce rate by a couple of percentage points if they moved the score inwards. It is a constant source of irritation to my wife to find our perfectly good flat-screen TV always on letterbox-cut setting (changed by me to see the scores)."
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Today's Webpick: You saw the footage of the 'near-miss' in Nelson last week when a tree fell in the storm, narrowly missing a unwitting motorist, but did you see what happened straight after? Watch it here.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
