July 8th, 2009 12:43pm by stultzie
In the present climate of climate change and weekly world symposia on preserving the environment, it would seem an obvious crime to cut down a healthy, thriving oak tree, and that is exactly what is causing heated debate in the small town of Jaslo in south-east Poland.
So why is this noble oak causing such controversy? Well, it’s not just any old tree. The oak was planted in 1942, during the Nazi occupation, having been donated to the town’s German administrator by Adolf Hitler to mark the dictator’s birthday.
Perhaps nothing would have happened had it not been for the still sharp memory of 81-year-old local historian, Kazimierz Polak. When the tree was earmarked to be felled to improve traffic flow, Polak felt he had to make the authorities aware of its historic significance… Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 2%
Tags: trees
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July 8th, 2009 12:21pm by stultzie
BERLIN (Reuters) – A drunk German sparked a slow-speed police chase after stealing a tractor to get home from a nightclub after his girlfriend left without him, said police, who used pepper spray to try to stop the vehicle.
“After his girlfriend abandoned him in a night club, the 23-year-old driver, who doesn’t own a license, commandeered the vehicle to make his way home,” a police spokesman said on Monday.
Six police cars began trailing the tractor, which was chugging along at 20 km (12 miles) an hour, after they were alerted to the theft at about 5 a.m. Saturday.
Officers tried holding up stop signs and directing pepper spray through the open window to bring the driver to a halt.
They then tried unsuccessfully to end his getaway by throwing nail belts on the road, but the tractor’s tires proved too thick, said the police spokesman.
The 40-minute chase finally came to an end when officers shot at the tractor’s tires after it rammed into a police car and collided with another vehicle.
I love so many things about this article. Firstly, I get a kick out of the thrill of being young, drunk and German. Makes me feel, ohhh I don’t know, proud to be German? Yeah, I’ll go with that.
Secondly, I love the progression of tactics used to bring the operator to a halt:
- They tried holding up stop signs… seriously? HE STOLE A TRACTOR so you wave stop signs at him? So good.
- Clearly time for the pepper spray when that fails…through the open window. Skills.
- Booby trap the road with nail belts…obviously just for shits and giggles
- before shooting the tires…
SUCCESS!
And all this at 12mph.
Popularity: 1%
Tags: drunk, tractor
Posted in News, Stories, WTF | 1 Comment »
July 8th, 2009 12:00pm by flipvine
Posted in Tweets and Twits | No Comments »
July 8th, 2009 09:42am by flipvine
Ladies, Gentlemen, Friends, Romans, Countrymen and of course Horses, rejoice! According to new Trojan ads, their new Ecstasy-flavored condoms “Feel like nothing’s there!”.
Now, I see a couple points of irony in this particular flavor of advertising. Umm.. looks lemony-yellow to me, but that’s beside the point.
“Nothing’s there” – that’s what she said. That would be the first point of irony. I mean, if you’re having sex, I would imagine you’d WANT to have something there. (Actually, let me know if I’m completely off-base on this one – for instance if the whole Ecstasy thing is actually the opposite of the Magnum line and is actually meant for people who suffer from a total lack of genitals – I really didn’t do my research on this one, but I did laugh for about 6 minutes after seeing that ad).
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 6%
Tags: condoms, demotivation posters, trojan horse
Posted in Advertising Campaigns | No Comments »
July 8th, 2009 12:52am by flipvine
Ok, the Japanese have done it again! According to the Mainichi Daily News:
Keihin Electric Express Railway Co. has introduced a “Smile Scan” system to evaluate the grins of its station staff.
I shit you not. They have a computer checking up on the quality of their employee’s smiles. I smell the distinct scent of the Joker!
But in all seriousness, I’ve always wondered how Japanese employees can put up with this kind of tom-foolery being perpetrated by their employers? I mean, we’ve got Office Space making fun of little things like “pieces of flare” at Bennigans, or Shananigans, or whatever the restaurant in the movie was called. I guess in Japan there’s no pop-culture civil disobedience. Either that or the employees are somehow actually happy to take part in this kind of BS. Weird. Here’s more:
The smile-measuring software has been developed by Kyoto-based precision equipment maker Omron Corp. The device analyzes the facial characteristics of a person, including eye movements, lip curves and wrinkles, and rates a smile on a scale between 0 and 100 percent using a camera and computer.
For those with low scores, advice like “You still look too serious,” or “Lift up your mouth corners,” will be displayed on the screen.
Some 530 employees of the Tokyo-based railway company will check their smiles with Smile Scan before starting work each day. They will print out and carry around an image of their best smile in an attempt to remember it.
We emailed Keihin Electric Express Railway Co. and they sent us the following pictures, which they use to calibrate the 0 to 100 percent scale:
0 percent
100 percent
I don’t know if I’d rather have train conductors look like the one on the left or the one on the right..
So in order to help improve their system, we sent them our own proven best-of-breed tried-and-true smile chart.
Popularity: 18%
Tags: japanese, smile, train
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