Curiouser and Curiouser! on stupidity http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic stupidity Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb Great marketing ideas #232 Sun, 10 Apr 2005 21:19:18 +0100 <p>I just caught an advert for chewing gum. The advert had a guy walking along the street and come across a pack of gum in a bear trap. After a momentary pause the guy tries to grab the gum and gets his arm snaffled by the trap. White coated scientists observe this and chalk up another "grabber" on a big blackboard. It also records one non-grabber.</p> <p>Watching along it wasn't hard to guess that the guy wouldn't kick over the trap to get the gum. Is the message <strong>"If you're a total halfwit buy our gum."</strong>?</p> <p>I must be the <em>no-grab</em> guy.</p> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002489.html Today I am a very angry man. Thu, 28 Jul 2005 19:32:11 +0100 <p>So, I made the mistake of turning on the news today and hearing all about the wonderful things our security forces are doing to make the world a better place. And all the pundits, talking heads, and <em>common folk</em> with their reactions.</p> <p>So, I'm supposed to get used to armed police on the streets of London for the next 2 decades? I'm supposed to be happy to pay an extra £0.5m, and upwards, <strong>per day</strong> to pay for this privilege? Oh and more for the mayors armed, plain clothes, policemen on the tube? This is on top of our chunk of the $700 billion the sham liberation of Iraq is costing by the way.</p> <p>I'd like us to consider an alternative. How about we start by throwing Blair to the International Criminal Court in the Hague and make an apology to the sovereign nation of Iraq for illegally invading their country, killing many thousands of their people, and allowing their national treasures and resources to be looted and destroyed. How about that?</p> <p>I'd also like to see any proof anyone has that this <em>enhanced</em> police presence makes us one iota safer? I'm not talking about whether the rubes the BBC interviewed today "feel reassured." I mean really, actually, less likely to be killed in a bombing or other attack.</p> <p>I'm sick of this.</p> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002787.html Something else I'm sick of hearing Thu, 28 Jul 2005 19:49:50 +0100 <p>Another thing which annoyed me today was hearing peoples reactions to the new lottery scratchcard called (something like) "Going for Gold." A common reaction seemed to be:<blockquote>If the government want the Olympics let them pay for it.</blockquote>I hate to break it to you but the governments money is <strong>our money</strong> taken from us, by force, through the mechanism of taxation. If it's paid for out of tax (or borrowing which is just deferred taxation with a variable interest rate) then we're all paying!</p><p> Jeez.</p><p>I wish the <strong>whole</strong> bloody Olympics was funded out of scratch cards. At least that would mean that the people who wanted the Olympics (and I'm not one of them) would get the Olympics they deserved.</p> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002791.html