Some news you may have missed.

A woman upset when police seized her three preserved snakes stormed into the Hamilton station and threw a jar of pickled kittens at the counter.

...

Hoskyn said the snakes, which she bought from an antique store, held special spiritual significance for her because she was born in the year of the snake and used them to help to celebrate Halloween.

She also kept the two kittens for Halloween celebrations, using them to give the house a scary look.

The kittens were still-born from the couple's cat.

Police communications manager Kris McGehan said that although the encounter sounded amusing, it had serious consequences.

"The jar shattered. It was full of formaldehyde, which is highly toxic. The public counter had to be closed, which caused police and the public a lot of inconvenience.

"Two phones had to be replaced and we had to monitor the health of staff who may have absorbed the chemical or its fumes."

...

Hoskyn said her trouble began on Sunday when she had an argument with her partner, Tony.

"I slipped over and cut my head, Tony panicked and called an ambulance, thinking he had caused my injury. He hadn't.

"Police were called, we think by the ambulance people. While outside they saw two cannabis plants and decided under the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act they could search the house.

"I was taken away by ambulance and Tony was arrested. When they searched the house they came across my two snakes, preserved in jars."

The snakes were taken away by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Here's something fun - a multi-user interactive flash game for moving letters about. Futilely try to write greetings while others steal your letters! Have fun preventing adolescent half-wits spelling out racial slurs! Think outside the square - maybe you can use that pair of L's to do a little leg-puppet dance! But do something interesting and don't bogart the site- it's limited to 75 users at once and OTHER PEOPLE WANT THEIR BLOODY TURN!!!

Get happy! Here's a cut-up of George W. Bush singing Sunday Bloody Sunday, over at Audio Street; or go straight to the artists' site: The Party Party. Toe-tapping, soul-chilling fun.

The inevitable Apologies Accepted website.

Number Stations

Being strange short-wave radio frequencies on which lists of numbers are broadcasted - almost certainly espionage related. Now available on CD.

NPR Report

The Conet Project

Zoomquilt
Tres cool. Probably not dial-up friendly.

Part of America Apologises