Jockstrip: The world as we know it

Parking meters spits out train tickets

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- A rogue parking meter in Wellington, New Zealand, is giving motorists train tickets that instruct them to "please hand ticket to the driver."

Andrew Kidd paid $1.37 into the pay and display machine last week and out popped a train ticket, dated July 23, 2004, the Wellington Dominion Post reported.

"I noticed at the time that when it came out of the machine it said it was a train ticket and the date was wrong, but I was in a hurry," he told the newspaper.

He put the ticket on the dashboard of his car and rushed off to an appointment. When he returned he found a parking ticket for $8.25 for failing to display a current ticket.

The Wellington City Council's parking services manager, Wayne Tacon, agreed something strange was occurring and after an investigation he found the parking machine company also provided tickets for the Auckland rail system. A worker apparently put software into the parking machine containing instructions and labels meant for rail commuters.

Package shipper leaves a few undelivered

TAHARA, Japan, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Officials of a major Japanese shipping company have admitted more than 1,300 packages left in their care were never delivered.

The Yamato Transport Co. said 1,374 unsent packages, mostly business catalogs, pamphlets and books ordered by companies, remained in an office in Tahara, Aichi Prefecture for as long as five years, the Mainichi Daily News reported Sunday.

The head of the Tahara office, who quit in November 2001, collected the undelivered packages and left them untouched.

Yamato Transport officials said they would investigate why his successors didn't notice the undelivered packages for five years.

"It's a mistake that might damage customers' trust," a Yamato official said. "We will try to prevent such failures in the future."

The company admitted it had received complaints and inquiries about unsent mail, but the officials said they would talk with 328 corporate customers that entrusted their mail with Yamato about compensation.

Ad for 'Drawn Together' pulled in NYC

NEW YORK, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- A raunchy ad for U.S. cable's Comedy Central new cartoon show has been removed from New York City subway trains after people complained.

The New York Post reported most of the complaints centered on the ads' overt sexual content.

"It was pulled because of some things that might be construed by some people to be offensive," said Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Tom Kelly.

The ad was for "Drawn Together," which is billed as "TV's first animated reality show." The series depicts cartoon characters having sex, high jinks and frat-house style debauchery while living together before cartoon "cameras," the Post said.

Richard Loomis, the Comedy Central's vice president of advertising and marketing, said making the ads as raunchy as possible was the responsible thing to do, so viewers would know the TV-MA-rated adult cartoon is not for children.

Woman diagnosed with 'sleep sex'

SYDNEY, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- A woman in Australia has had sex with several strangers -- while she sleep walked, Sky News reported Saturday.

The woman had no idea she was sneaking from house to house in the middle of the night getting physical with random strangers until her husband woke up to find her missing with condoms strewn around the house.

Dr. Peter Buchanan, of Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, said the sleep disorder is a legitimate condition.

Buchanan has said he will discuss the case when he lectures on sleep sex - the disorder has yet to be given a formal title - at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Sleep Association in Sydney.

"It is very complex, elaborated motor behaviour during sleep," Buchanan told a radio interview.

"People are often stunned and overwhelmed when they're told what they've been doing."