Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Bush Shoe Animations

The video of the Iraqi shoe thrower has become the new darling of the online animation world, I expect we'll be seeing new animations for months to come and parodies for years.

I would post links to the gifs here but they were killing the Boing Boing site from whence they came so I'm just going to direct everyone over to Boing Boing to watch them. My favourite is the Three Stooges one at the end, does that mean I am saying something about my mental age?

The link to the BBC story does explain why throwing shoes at someone is such an insult in the Arab world. I do remember reading once that part of the problems Americans had in Somalia back in the 1990's were caused by soldiers sitting on the edge of helicopters with their feet dangling over the side showing the soles of their boots to all the citizens below. I don't think anyone could ever say it caused the black hawk down incident but it helped to piss off the citizens who took it as an insult from the people who were trying to save them from famine and starvation.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Most depressing song

I was listening to the new Dublin radio station Christmas FM today when they played the most depressing song I have ever heard, The Christmas Shoes. A song about a little boy trying to buy new shoes for his mother on Christmas Eve because she is dying and he wants her to look pretty when she meets Jesus that evening. It's a morose piece of Christmas rubbish so I couldn't help but google it.

This led me to what had to be the funniest book title I've ever heard:
"I Hate Myself and Want to Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You've Ever Heard" which lists The Christmas Shoes as the most depressing song in modern recorded music history. Brilliant!

Monday, December 08, 2008

Farmers

Question:
Why did the pig cross the road?

Irish Farmers Answer:
"Who knows, but thanks to traceability we are able to locate the farm the pig came from and make sure it is returned to the correct farm. Anyway only a small minority of farms ever loose pigs and the pig don't do too much damage and no cars hit the pig.

It's all just hype really, you would need to have lots of pigs crossing the road to cause any trouble or pose any real risk to passing motorists. However a far more important question is when will the government compensate all farmers for the loss of any pigs and for having to cross the road themselves to recover the pigs."

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Favourite Christmas Adverts

The Christmas adverts are in full swing on TV but some of my favourites are missing so far. Here is one of the best, the Let it Snow advert from Heineken. With the economic downturn of this year I imagine there will be lots of this going on in companies all around the world plus more than a few shredders running in the White House this festive season.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

The economy gets worse

Tax revenue is €7.4bn behind target for the year up to the end of November. VAT was €2.1bn behind target, with Capital Gains Tax €1.7bn less than expected. Corporation Tax was €1.5bn below target, with Stamp Duty figures also €1bn less than projected.

I suppose they will just have to throw on a few percent extra in taxes and a couple of new levies in another emergency budget. People still have money the government could take, after all they are still spending it, just in Northern Ireland.

Monday, December 01, 2008

Christmas Tree

I'm off to buy a new fake Christmas tree tonight. I have to buy it tonight or tomorrow night or it will be next week before I get another chance to go to the shop. I wonder is it too early to put up the tree this week?

Update: Tree bought, still in it's box. 1.8 meters "Canadian Pine" I cheated and got one with lights attached. Fake trees, no matter how realistic still suck. Maybe next year I'll get a real one.