evanmorris.com
Because nothing says “trust me” like a huge, pointless and potentially violent assistant:
Rick Wagner has been using his llamas as a branding and public relations tool for his business, the Wagner Insurance Agency. Wagner fashions himself “The Llama Guy” and takes his animals with him to expos to help people identify his business.
“Aflac’s got the duck. Geico has the gecko. Wagner has the llama,” he said.
Dressed in a suit and tie, Wagner pitches his company to would-be customers while his llama sits near his booth, he said.
“I think the greatest expression I’ve ever seen on someone’s face is when they get on the elevator, and there I am with a llama,” he said.
[snip]
Several llama owners said that the animals are surprisingly agile. If llamas or their herd are threatened, they will jump on their hind legs to claw the predator with its hoof, Baker said.
Shut up and clap, sez the Japanese govt.:
Uesugi also notes that at TEPCO press conferences, which are now being held at company headquarters, foreign correspondents and Japanese freelancers regularly ask probing questions while mainstream journalists simply record and report company statements reiterating that the situation is basically under control and there is nothing to worry about. One reason for this, Uesugi suggests, is that TEPCO, a giant media sponsor, has an annual 20 billion yen advertising budget. “The media keeps defending the information from TEPCO!” “The Japanese media today is no different from the wartime propaganda media that kept repeating to the very end that ‘Japan is winning the war against America,’” Uesugi exclaimed.
[snip]
Now the Japanese government has moved to crack down on independent reportage and criticism of the government’s policies in the wake of the disaster by deciding what citizens may or may not talk about in public. A new project team has been created by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, the National Police Agency, and METI to combat “rumors” deemed harmful to Japanese security in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
The government charges that the damage caused by earthquakes and by the nuclear accident are being magnified by irresponsible rumors, and the government must take action for the sake of the public good. The project team has begun to send “letters of request” to such organizations as telephone companies, internet providers, cable television stations, and others, demanding that they “take adequate measures based on the guidelines in response to illegal information.” The measures include erasing any information from internet sites that the authorities deem harmful to public order and morality.
[more] via JapanFocus.
Kinda like a five-finger discount with really big fingers:
KINGSBURY — Scrappers apparently stole a stretch of abandoned railroad tracks at Kingsbury Industrial Park.
It appears a bulldozer was transported to the site and used to dig up the partially buried rails.“I just think that’s pretty bold,” said Scott Woodham, who owns 64 acres, a portion on which the stolen tracks were situated.
According to sheriff’s deputies, Woodham noticed the theft Monday at Central and 1st Line roads. The street was dug up to remove the rails crossing Central Road.More rails were lifted from a stretch of Woodham’s land after knocking down and moving back trees to access the old, long-abandoned tracks partially covered by dirt.
Woodham’s wife, Wendy, said about 30 feet of rail was taken first, then another 20 feet of abandoned tracks later.
“There was a whole section gone,” she said.Scott Woodham said there were bulldozer tracks on his property and other evidence heavy machinery arrived there on a trailer.
[more] via The News Dispatch > Archives > News > Local > Scrappers take railroad tracks at industrial park.
So can we assume that someday soon the guy trying to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge will be serious?
I don’t know much about art, but I think that’s a good likeness of really stupid:
The process was routine. L.A. County Sheriff’s homicide investigator Kevin Lloyd was flipping through snapshots of tattooed gang members.
Then one caught his attention.
Inked on the pudgy chest of a young Pico Rivera gangster who had been picked up and released on a minor offense was the scene of a 2004 liquor store slaying that had stumped Lloyd for more than four years.
Each key detail was right there: the Christmas lights that lined the roof of the liquor store where 23-year-old John Juarez was gunned down, the direction his body fell, the bowed street lamp across the way and the street sign — all under the chilling banner of RIVERA KILLS, a reference to the gang Rivera-13.
As if to seal the deal, below the collarbone of the gang member known by the alias “Chopper” was a miniature helicopter raining down bullets on the scene.
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today’s moodcat
