What's the Dumbest Thing You've SEEN Today?

[Kat Stevens]

And they broke away from The Empire a couple of hundred years or so ago...why?

 

[ModlrMike]

Another case of governance by regulation rather than legislation, where the bureaucrats create the laws. To quote from the video "It started when the EPA passed a mandate..."

 

[Journeyman]

Another case of governance by regulation rather than legislation, where the bureaucrats create the laws. To quote from the video "It started when the EPA passed a mandate..."

That was my initial thought as well; the un-elected have "decreed" and now everyone has to scramble to meet their diktat.

 

[OldSolduer]

The new "Lone Ranger" movie.

Its a good thing it was free......thats two hours of my life I will never get back.

 

[cupper]

Still doesn't answer the question.  It may rain on one side of town, but not on other.  Why is the guy with no rain, perhaps a drought, be taxed the same as someone with rain?

It is not the amount of rainfall that is being taxed, it is the amount of surface impervious to water infiltration that is being taxed. Specifically roofs, concrete decks, asphalt, all of which allow stormwater to run off rather than percolate back into ground.

It is easily calculated, and may already be done as part of building permitting during construction. Sizing of stormwater management systems uses the same methodology.

The mandate stems from Congress passing the Clean Water Act of 1972 and subsequent amendments during the 80's specifically targeting improvements of the state and quality of the Chesapeake Bay.

The only real issue in this teapot tempest is that the "fee" is being charged separately, rather than being hidden in one's property taxes, water bills, or other general taxes and bills they already pay.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

McDonald's kills employee resource website amid criticism
'McResource' website reportedly discouraged workers from eating fast foo

:facepalm:

 

[cupper]

This is one of the best responses to a big business assault on the little guy I've heard of in quite a while.

:rofl:

The Other 'F Word': Brewer Responds To Starbucks Over Beer Name

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/30/258427295/the-other-f-word-brewer-responds-to-starbucks-over-beer-name?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook

In general, getting a cease-and-desist letter from a big corporation isn't the mark of a good day. But after a brewery owner got a letter from a law firm representing Starbucks, he saw a chance to draw distinctions between the businesses — and to be funny.

The coffee company's bone of contention, Missouri brewer Jeff Britton was told in a Dec. 9 letter, was the use of the name "Frappicino" to describe a stout served at Exit 6 Brewery, a brewpub in a tidy strip mall in Cottleville, northwest of St. Louis.

The name too closely resembled Starbucks' Frappuccino, Anessa Owen Kramer, an attorney at a law firm that protects Starbucks' trademarks, wrote. The similar names might cause customers to "mistakenly believe that Exit 6 or this beer product is affiliated with or licensed by Starbucks Coffee Co., when they are not," the letter said.

Exit 6 was given 14 days to respond to the company's request to remove any sources of potential confusion with the Starbucks brand.

Britton took that time to frame a response in which he informs Starbucks of his efforts to comply, going so far as to cease using the word "Frappuccino." Instead, he uses "The F Word" in his letter, which is addressed to "Ms Owen Kramer" and cc'ed to "Mr Bucks."

"As you probably don't know, Exit 6 is the proud owner of no trademarks including our own name much less than the name 'F Word' and nothing about Exit 6 is incontestable," Britton wrote.

Here's a passage in which Britton lays out the brewpub's position:

    "We never thought that our beer drinking customers would have thought that the alcoholic beverage coming out of the tap would have actually been coffee from one of the many, many, many stores located a few blocks away. I guess that with there being a Starbucks on every corner of every block in every city that some people may think they could get a Starbucks at a local bar. So that was our mistake."

In an interview with local , Britton explained his reaction to the company's request.

"When I got that letter, I had to laugh," he said. "I don't blame Starbucks for doing what they did, I understand why they did it and they had every right to do it. But I'm a small brewery, small bar, in a small town, that makes small batches of beer."

Britton told Starbucks that he could confirm the sale of at least three of the beers, citing three "check-ins" at the beer website Untappd — which seems to have been how Starbucks learned of the issue. So, Britton enclosed a check for $6 in profit.

"We just want to help a business like Starbucks," Britton wrote. "Us small business owners need to stick together."

Exit 6 has now renamed the drink in question — calling it the "F Word." And it seems popular with customers: On a recent day, at least a half-dozen people posted to Untappd to say they were drinking pints of it.

And in further proof that Britton knows how to turn a unique idea into a business opportunity, he's selling T-shirts that feature the $6 check, according to an .

In it, the brewer also explains what an "F Word" is at Exit 6:

    " 'It kind of turned into a glass of really good deliciousness,' Britton says of his drink, a splash of Founders Breakfast Stout over a glass of Exit 6's vanilla creme ale, the brewery's most popular beer. 'A couple of customers had a pint of it, and they said, 'This tastes like a Frappuccino.' "

Britton's letter drew attention on and the legal blog after it was posted on the . In it, the brewpub owner says that if not for a simple mistake, the risk of confusion between the two Frappuccino names might have been even greater.

"Unfortunately it was only similar to the F Word because we meant to call it the same thing," he wrote. "Lucky for us, we're poor spelers."

The full letter is included at the link. Well worth the read.

I wonder how many "F Word" brews he had while putting his response together. ;D

 

[Brandonfw]

This is one of the best responses to a big business assault on the little guy I've heard of in quite a while.

:rofl:

The Other 'F Word': Brewer Responds To Starbucks Over Beer Name

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/30/258427295/the-other-f-word-brewer-responds-to-starbucks-over-beer-name?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook

The full letter is included at the link. Well worth the read.

I wonder how many "F Word" brews he had while putting his response together. ;D

Bahahahaha, that is awesome!

 

[cupper]

Is it something in the water over there, or what? Seriously, you really can't make this up, and not have people back slowly away from you.

Egypt’s latest terror suspect: The popular felt-and-yarn puppet Abla Fahita

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egypts-latest-terror-suspect-the-popular-felt-and-yarn-puppet-abla-fahita/2014/01/02/ced0def6-73c3-11e3-9389-09ef9944065e_story.html?hpid=z4

CAIRO — The Egyptian government’s crackdown on dissent has come to this: a terrorism probe focusing on a popular puppet.

Abla Fahita — a felt-and-yarn puppet who makes regular appearances on Egyptian television — went on the air Wednesday night to deny allegations that her lines in a recent commercial were veiled bomb threats and coded messages to the recently banned Muslim Brotherhood organization.

“I am a comedic character,” Fahita, who plays a gossipy widow, said in a Skype interview with Egypt’s CBC network.

The puppet was accused by a little-known youth activist, and opponent of Egypt’s 2011 uprising, who goes by the moniker Ahmed Spider. He filed a legal complaint that was forwarded to special terrorism prosecutors, at a time when a string of deadly bombings and violent protests have plunged the country into turmoil, prompted mass arrests and fostered a climate of paranoia.

The government last week designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, one of the most serious moves against the group in its 85-year history. Officials have made seemingly far-fetched allegations against the Brotherhood and ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, including that Morsi and the group conspired with Iran to seize power in Egypt.

Fahita’s suspicious messages were allegedly transmitted in a new commercial for the telecommunications company Vodafone. Security officials summoned Vodafone executives Thursday to interrogate them.

In the Vodafone ad, Fahita is shown speaking with someone on the phone about how to recover her late husband’s SIM card. She mentions using a sniffer dog at a shopping mall in an effort to find the card.

In a statement, Vodafone said the skit was meant to explain to consumers how to reactivate old cards. But Ahmed Spider interpreted the reference to a sniffer dog as an announcement of a forthcoming bomb attack.

Other phrases in the commercial allegedly allude to the government’s recent seizure of Muslim Brotherhood assets, Spider says. He adds that the appearance of a cactus adorned with Christmas decorations in the commercial is a threat of violence, with the ornaments symbolizing bombs.

The Associated Press said it received an e-mail from Vodafone that called Spider’s interpretation of the ad “mere imagination.”

But some pro-government and pro-military Facebook pages have posted calls for Egyptians to boycott the company.

Elsewhere on social media sites, the investigation of Fahita was widely mocked Thursday. Twitter users started the hashtag #FreeFahita. On a more serious note, Egyptian activists also expressed alarm at the rapidly shrinking space for dissent.

In a post about Fahita on her blog, Inanities, the British Egyptian writer Sarah Carr said the public mood in Egypt has become “almost fascistic in its reverence” for the elimination of opponents or critics of the state.

“Sometimes it seems that Egypt does extreme tragedy and extreme comedy and nothing in between,” Carr wrote. “As a result, living in this country is a bit like cohabiting with someone with a hormonal imbalance.”

 

[OldSolduer]

The vultures fly high on a moonlit night.

The vultures fly high on a moonlit night.

 

[CougarKing]

I pondered posting this in the humour section first...  :facepalm:

The smog has become so thick in Beijing that the city's natural light-starved masses have begun flocking to huge digital commercial television screens across the city to observe virtual sunrises.


The futuristic screens installed in the Chinese capital usually advertize tourist destinations, but as the season's first wave of extremely dangerous smog hit - residents donned air masks and left their homes to watch the only place where the sun would hail over the horizon that morning.


Commuters across Beijing found themselves cloaked in a thick, gray haze on Thursday as air pollution monitors issued a severe air warning and ordered the elderly and school children to stay indoors until the quality improved

(...)


Read more: UK Daily Mail

 

[Sigs Pig]

The vultures fly high on a moonlit night.

The vultures fly high on a moonlit night.

So far that is the dumbest thing I have seen today, does he not know vultures do not fly at night?

ME

 

[211RadOp]

The vultures fly high on a moonlit night.

The vultures fly high on a moonlit night.

So far that is the dumbest thing I have seen today, does he not know vultures do not fly at night?

ME

I am fairly sure you are not familiar with Jim's reference.

 

[OldSolduer]

So far that is the dumbest thing I have seen today, does he not know vultures do not fly at night?

ME

Read your history sonny jim. Coded messages such as this were broadcast by the BBC that signalled agents in France in WWII to take what action they were ordered to. Usually there were many messages such as "Uncle Joe and Aunt Betty had a good night out last night" among others that may mean nothing, or it could be a signal to a particular agent or group of agents to take the action he/she/they were ordered to.

 

[mariomike]

Coded messages such as this were broadcast by the BBC that signalled agents in France in WWII to take what action they were ordered to.

Coded messages were also broadcast by the BBC as warnings, given as one of the conditions of the continued bombing of French railway centres, to give civilians living near such targets a chance to get clear of the area.

 

[ModlrMike]

Sounds like somebody needs to watch The Longest Day.

 

[OldSolduer]

Sounds like somebody needs to watch The Longest Day.

Bob and Joe went dancing last night.

Bob and Joe went dancing last night.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

There is fire at the travel agency

There is fire at the travel agency

 

[my72jeep]

The Smoking Nun had a bad habit.

The Smoking Nun had a bad habit.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

John has a long moustache

John has a long moustache

;D