» quirky

Arnold Schwarzenegger visits 10 Downing Street. David Cameron vows he’ll “terminate the budget deficit”

Austin Young — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:05:35 +0000

Legendary action-movie star turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger has made a visit to 10 Downing Street, where he spoke with Prime Minister David Cameron about a range of subjects, including their respective efforts to tackle deficits.

The governor of California and Mr Cameron then posed for photos, where the PM joked (I assume), that Schwarzenegger was there to help “terminate the budget deficit.” The former Mr Universe then hailed the courage of British troops as he watched the changing of the guard and visited soldiers at Wellington Barracks near Buckingham Palace.

The Terminator star told the troops, in his own imitable style:

“I get hailed a lot of times when I travel around the world as being the action hero but…you are risking your life every day when you go out to the front so I say thank you, thank you, thank you for the great work that you are doing.”

Arnie also, naturally, visited the gym, and in a rather disturbing turn of events, praised the bodies of the soldiers, saying: “I was amazed when I saw your guys pumping up in the gym with those deltoids and those biceps and the six-pack. Wow, you guys are really in great shape.”

And yes, I am only sniggering because he isn’t here.

Mr Cameron also weighed in with his own praise for the troops, saying the men faced a “very tough tour” in Afghanistan but faced it with “incredible bravery and dedication.”

It’s not the first time that Arnie and the PM have met, they’ve actually struck up a bit of a friendship in recent years, with the two meeting for the first time back in 2007. In fact, it has even been reported that the former Mr Freeze was among the first to congratulate Mr Cameron when election results came in earlier this year.

So yeah, it’s safe to say he’ll probably be returning to Downing Street again fairly soon. Yep. He’ll be back.

Israel’s lottery throws up same numbers twice in three weeks. Rather suspicious.

Austin Young — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:03:21 +0000

At odds which are well, probably pretty long, Israel’s latest lottery draw has produced the exact same numbers as it did three weeks ago.

Israeli viewers were left shocked when the six numbers – 36, 33, 32, 26, 14, 13 – came out on live television, in the exact same order that they had three weeks earlier, with the only difference being a different bonus ball. The incident, naturally, led to a spate of complaints from players who thought the whole affair was more than a little bit suspicious. However, the national lottery authority of Israel checked the draw several times over and found the whole thing was completely kosher. Apparently.

Dr Chaim Melamed, the resident number cruncher at the authority, said: “We are in the business of luck, and when it comes to chances and probabilities anything is possible, even the rare and infrequent.”

Three separate winners scooped around £700,000 each after winning at the weekend, but it’s still unknown if any of them had pocketed anything in the draw three weeks previously. And, you know, you probably wouldn’t mention it if you wanted to avoid suspicion.

I mean make sure people weren’t jealous.

Zvi Gilula, a professor of statistics at Hebrew University, said that the probability of the same number set occurring in the lottery only a few weeks apart is around one in 4 trillion. However, the story is very similar to one in Bulgaria last year, whereby the exact same numbers were drawn two weeks in a row (albeit in a different order).

However, it was found then that there was no foul play, and as weird as the whole affair is, maybe I’m just being a little pessimistic by assuming that there was in Israel. And plus, if you were going to rig the lottery, no one would be stupid enough to make it that obvious, would they?

Swiss finance minister becomes YouTube sensation over meat import speech

Austin Young — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 09:16:23 +0000

Hans-Rudolf Merz – Switzerland’s finance minister to the uninitiated – has managed to become an internet hit after footage of him cracking up with laughter during a parliamentary speech on spiced meat imports gained over 300,000 views on YouTube.
The 67-year-old, who had never received much international acclaim prior to the speech, was so tickled by the term “Bundnerfleisch” – which is an air-dried beef product – that he was unable to contain himself, subsequently leading to fits of giggles from the rest of his parliamentary colleagues.
Merz has never been an altogether popular figure in his homeland, and has been subject to plenty of criticism in Switzerland over some of his domestic policies and failing to secure the release of two Swiss citizens that were being held in Libya. They also didn’t like it when he signed away much of Switzerland’s banking secrecy. However, the whole YouTube affair seems to have really turned things round for him, with some hoping that he’ll take up a career in comedy after he retires as finance minister, which, funnily enough, is actually next month. The speech has led to a bit of a “feel-good factor” in the Swiss meat trade, with one company now advertising their products with the slogan: “Never lose your sense of humour.”
Despite the fact that most viewers of the video cannot speak Swiss and thus, have absolutely no idea what he is saying, Merz seems to have captured the imaginations of viewers in all countries, with one saying: “I don’t understand anything, but it’s always funny,” whilst another added: “I just love him.”
Rumours that had Alistair Darling adopted a similar protocol when delivering his final budget earlier this year then the outcome of the General Election may have been drastically different have surfaced, but are not necessarily substantiated.

Here’s the video…

Visa slaps teen with $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 bill for a prepaid card

Andrew Girdwood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:33:15 +0000

: Image by Andres Rueda via Flickr

Interesting news stalwart Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing is to be thanked for bringing this to our attention.

Visa have recorded a $23, 148, 855, 308, 184, 500.00 charge on a prepaid card.

The Consumerist, who broke the story, point out that’s 2,000 times larger than America’s national debt of $11 trillion and that the ever-vigilant billing team at Visa remembered to add the $20 charge for being in the red. Yes; the card was also suspended.

Prepaid cards are an interesting idea. They work in a very similar way to credit or debit cards except you can only spend the balance that has been assigned to the card. In theory this means it is impossible to run in to debt (as there’s no overdraft option) and therefore ideal for giving to teenagers.

Cards are usually assigned a PIN number and can be used at ATM machines, online or even over the telephone.

They’ve become popular with travellers as they’re seen as being a handy as plastic but much less of a risk. They’re often more discreet than cash as well. Normally, that is, unless a drug store tries to charge you all the money in the world and the bill ends up on the internet. When that happens they’re not so discreet.