Sideswipe: December 14: Christmas bonus more of an insult?

Did you know?

1. In the 1970s, Kodak started to reformulate their film to better represent dark brown colours because they’d had complaints from chocolate companies and wooden furniture manufacturers. It wasn’t until 1995 that they introduced a calibration card showing non-white faces.

2. Social media headlines are evolving fast. Since 2017, they’ve got shorter (11 words vs 15 words), and many clickbait phrases like “…will make you…” or “things only … will understand” no longer work.

3. In 2020 there was a brief panic about Americans being sent mysterious packages of seeds from China. It turns out (spoiler warning) that they had just ordered the seeds, forgotten about them, then got swept up in all the excitement.

Mass quitting

After overhearing a boss yell at an intern when she asked for time off to visit her dying cat, another employee from IT sent a company-wide email citing the incident, without naming names, as one of the main reasons for their resignation. After the news spread, “over two dozen” people quit. They explained that they were “done with the company” before this as they cut their pay to “avoid laying off anyone” but apparently the company then posted record profits. They estimate 20 per cent of their department has already quit, but were hoping to “ride it out until next year”.

Nice bike, mate

In 1970 Peter went for his motorcycle licence in Wellington on a very stylish, for that vintage anyway, BSA 650cc Lightning. He writes: “The cop taking me out for the ride was on a somewhat dated Triumph so my bike was considerably better and a lot quicker than his. So up the Brooklyn Hill we went, and halfway up he signalled me to pull over. He then asked if he could take my bike for a ride which he did and blasted off up the hill coming back about 10 minutes later with a big grin on his face. Needless to say, that was the end of the test and I passed!”

Maybe a joke, maybe not…

The blurb says: “Watch with wonder as the Social Distance Zapper extends 1.5 metres! Keep the anti-maskers at bay with just three LR44 batteries to power this 4.5v zapper!”

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