Sideswipe: March 26: Bylaw busters

Who you gonna call ... bylaw busters!
This truck was seen loitering in the Silverdale area searching for bylaws that had either escaped or were out of control," writes Rob. "Surely the council could spend ratepayers' money more wisely than pimping up a truck with flashing orange lights and have it cruise the suburbs in search of someone doing something really trivial. Maybe it's the same service that's currently issuing traffic parking tickets to those who are forced to park on the grass (of all places) at the Silverdale Park and Ride. Watch out for the next reality TV show called Bylaw Control. "

Kiranjeet Singh was at Orewa New World when he saw this highly original approach to car parking.

Hard words to rhyme
Dunce rhymes with punce, a dialect word for flattened, pounded meat, or for a sudden hard kick. (er, and once)

Purple rhymes with hirple, meaning "to limp" or "walk awkwardly," and curple, an old Scots word for the hindquarters of a horse.

Women rhymes with both timon, an old word for the rudder of a ship, and dimmen, meaning "to grow dim" or "to set like the sun". Woman, however, has no rhyme at all. (See more at Mentalfloss.com)

In pursuit of a TV peck
Suza went to the Cricket World Cup semifinal match at Eden Park on Tuesday. "During the rain break, just before the match re-started (about 6.20pm), they did kiss-cam and my partner and I were shown on it. I have tried finding the clip but have had no luck." Can anyone help Suza out?

On your marks, stop!

The University of North Georgia used this unfortunate stock image on the cover of a course catalogue. In the picture, two white men, who are for some reason wearing full suits, joyfully burst across the finish line of a race as a woman in heels lags far behind and a more casually dressed black man struggles to even reach the end. A tagline across the photo reads: "Why follow when you can lead!". Sending a clear message that women and black men come last, a parody of diversity in higher education couldn't have done it better.

Local: Some impressive flag designs by writer Lyndon Hood (who is not on the new New Zealand flag design panel, but definitely should be) ....

Make this: A really swag cake that looks like a huge gold bar...

Video:

Bina48 is a robot modelled after a very real woman named Bina Aspen, wife of Dr. Martine Rothblatt. The real Bina Aspen spent more than 20 hours recalling her childhood experiences, life experiences and thoughts. The information was "then transcribed and uploaded to an artificial intelligence database." In this clip Bina48 the robot is having a conversation with human Bina Aspen...

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Got a Sideswipe? Send your pictures, links and anecdotes to Ana at ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz