Google’s tribute to the Human Centipede
Switched on the laptop Friday and fired up the old Google machine to be confronted with a freaky version of the Google logo. After I was done scratching my head I only had one question, was this Google’s tribute to the Human Centipede? The logo was actually a tribute to artist Keith Haring, but all [...]
Furniture store ad banned due to Sofa King low prices
A furniture store in the UK has had its advertisements banned for being "offensive and unsuitable for general display".
A BRITISH furniture retailer has been banned from using an ad that claimed its prices were "Sofa King low".
UK advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) upheld complaints that the advertisement for The Sofa King store in Northampton, central England, was "offensive and unsuitable for general display".
The ASA acknowledged in its ruling that the ad's strap line "could be interpreted as a derivative" of the F-bomb, "which consumer research had found to be a word so likely to offend that it should not be used in ads at all" - even when it was "relevant to the name of a product".
Source: "Sofa King ad banned in UK over F-bomb similarity", Herald Sun
According to the article, a grand total of three people complained about the ad in August 2011. Furthermore the Sofa King had been using the slogan since they began trading in 2004. That's three complains in nine years. Not huge numbers.
So where the ASA justified in pulling the ad or, as the shock jocks would say, 'is this a case of political correctness gone mad'?
The soundtrack to this story proudly brought to you by Dangerdoom. Enjoy.
Jolie leg, Gervais and the inevitable return
It's been a while. Life and travel have kept me away. At one point I had grand plans for this site, now I just can't remember where I put them. It may be time for me to set out an all new batch of goals. Goal number one: become more popular than Angelina Jolie's leg.
Actually I think the first thing I should do is either finish this WordPress theme or start using a new one all together. WordPress has changed a little in the past 12-18 months so it might be a good learning experience.
Time for some Bowie.
While I've been away Ricky Gervais has jumped on board Twitter proving that comedy can fit within 140 characters. Check it out here.
Anyway, I better run along now and contemplate the stuff. Deep. Peace.
Soundgarden circa 1990 Düsseldorf Germany
Long time no see. Stumbled across this old school Soundgarden gig from 1990 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Runs for 40mins, the band are arguably not at the peak of their powers but it rocks pretty hard none the less. Read more...
The Slopstopper? WTF?
First up, I should point out that I do not recommend doing a Google search for the term "Adult Bib". Nothing good will come of it... unless that's the sort of thing that floats your boat.
In case you curious according to Google's AdWords tool, placing AdWords for the term 'Adult Bibs" will cost you between AU$1.01 - AU$1.26 per click. Who would have thought that the Adult Bib market had so much potential? Read more...
Random things that have amused me this Thursday
It's Thursday, it's hot, I'm tired, yet I've still managed to find a handful of things to amuse me on a Thursday evening. It's funny where surfing the internet can lead you. Consider this a geeked out version of six degrees of separation. Read more...
Ricky Gervais Golden Globes quotes
If you couldn't sit through the Golden Globes, you probably missed the performance of Ricky Gervais. As host for the Awards, Ricky didn't pull any punches, delivering more of what you'd expect from him, "edgy" stand-up, poking fun at celebrities. Taking the p!ss out of celebrities is a stand-up staple, generally* though, the p!ss-taker does not share the same room as his/her subject matter. Read more...
The Force of Typography
I stumbled upon these gems this afternoon while browsing through some design/advertising websites. These images illustrate that typography can be used for more than just the written word. Read more...
Back to basics: Step One
My WordPress installation has become a bit of a monster. Not because of WordPress itself, but because of all the plugins that are running. The first step in my back to basics master plan is to remove all unnecessary plugins. Unfortunately this has turned out to be a little bit more difficult than I first thought. Why? Because a lot of the stuff that happens here (or used to happen - depending on when you read this) relies on plugins. Currently there are 28 plugins running. I'd say around a quarter of those are actually 'necessary'.
Whether or not I decide to keep a plugin is largely going to come down to one question, 'does the plugin make life easier?' If the answer is no, then there's a fair chance it won't be hanging around that much longer.
Off I go to switch off some plugins, if the lights go out, don't panic.
Back to basics
As you may have noticed, I haven't exactly been All-Bran regular in terms of my posting frequency on here for the past few months. I guess the cause has been one part lack of motivation, one part lack of creativity and one part laziness. A poisonous cocktail indeed. Read more...
Abbott and Costello circa 2010
I received this email forward today, gave me a bit of a giggle. If you aren't familiar with the classic Abbott and Costello "Who's on first?" routine then it probably loses a lot of its giggle factor.
So... if Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous sketch, 'Who's on First?' might have turned out something
like this... Read more...
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