Sideswipe: August 18: Hope that's mud

Tradie fights back on cashies

"I'm a tradie and I really need to get this off my chest," writes a reader. "These ads that appear on the radio from time to time about tradies doing cashies are really getting under my hard-working tradie skin. I work my ass off to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars every year in taxes. Here's why am I so angry: I go and take $50 out of an ATM. I drive to various bakery, dairy, takeaways, liquor stores and other outlets (I even had this happen at a gas station) and I take note of what happens when you hand over cash - the amount that gets run up on the till, or if the till even gets opened. I was in a bakery and I was 5th in line and all of us paid in cash. It was roughly $53 cash spent in 15 minutes and not once did I see an amount rung up on the till! So Mr Taxman mate, add up how many millions of dollars these places are costing the country every year in unpaid taxes. And how about you ease up on us tradies and start looking where it's really costing the country."

Hair-raising nuke warning

The recent threats from North Korea prompted Guam's Office of Civil Defence to issue guidelines on what people should do in the event of a nuclear emergency. It included the advice that you should wash your hair with shampoo or soap, but you shouldn't use conditioner "because it will bind radioactive material to your hair".

Savings made when hiring females

What privacy?

Vice.com reports a 28-year-old woman from British Columbia was banned for life from entering the United States after a US Customs officer searched her phone for two hours and found an email she'd written to her doctor about an accidental drug overdose. In 2016 at a party she was offered "cocaine" that turned out to be fentanyl. She was taken to the emergency room and saved after being injected with the opioid overdose antidote naloxone. A comment on Boingboing.net reads: "By now, the whole world should know that when you intend to enter the US, you never take with you (i) your phone, (ii) your laptop. Buy a cheap prepaid phone just for the trip. Further, keep a Facebook account with your real name, and post cat pictures on it, but keep your political views to your OTHER Facebook account, for which you use a nickname. (Under no circumstances have NO Facebook account. You will risk being waterboarded for not having one.)"

Boomers and Millennials, step aside

This guy reckons it's up to Generation X "the last Americans schooled in the old manner, the last Americans that know how to fold a newspaper, take a joke, and listen to a dirty story without losing their minds" to save America. Read full story here.

Fitting tribute

The Pantone Colour Institute has created "a standardised custom color" to honour Prince. The (naturally) purple hue, represented by his "Love Symbol #2" was inspired by his custom-made Yamaha purple piano, which was originally scheduled to go on tour with the performer before his untimely death at the age of 57. The colour pays tribute to Prince's indelible mark on music, art, fashion and culture.

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