IBQ Exclusive Cancer Insurance for Ladies

While I'm on a middle eastern theme (talking about SA import commodity restrictions), I recently discovered that:

International Bank of Qatar has something "especially designed for women" with free cancer insurance https://t.co/PGe1jWoZXH

— Jonathan Lansey (@JLansey) March 27, 2016

Not really sure what else to say so I'll just include some screenshots including this very popular – stock photo:

And here are the benefits including that sweet free cancer insurance. Just what women want from their banking institution.

And the link with handy custom url 'ladiesbanking'

http://www.ibq.com.qa/personalbanking/ladiesbanking/

Truth in advertising

After searching far and wide in Home Depot, asking multiple salespeople for help, and finally finding them at the bottom of a shelf in a random aisle, I agree completely with the descriptive label on these drawers:

Saudi Arabian Import commodity restrictions

As part of my ongoing adventures with Loud Bicycle I'm learning a lot about shipping. Last time it was that a strip of a mailing label and connected packing slip can be shipped across an ocean and arrive at the destination with no evidence of the actual box. Now some customers in Saudi Arabia have raised concerns about their shipping regulations.

Just to call out a few of these here,

• Car horns are OK but annoying car horns are not allowed. You know what I can't blame them really since they are probably talking about these car alarms.
• No Christmas Trees, with a capital T. Sounds like a real War on Christmas.
• Frogs mean, seems oddly specific, what about newt meat?
• Musical greeting cards ... interesting, but seems kind of petty to ban these.
• Massage equipment indecently packaged, I think we know what this is really about, but funny to imagine they had a big problem with massage equipment arriving in boxes like this:
  
  (could not find original source for this image, maybe here) 

Note:
I am not making this up, these are the real regulations, here is the document with all the information:
www.dhl-usa.com/content/dam/downloads/g0/express/shipping/customs/import_guide_sa_en.pdf

Risky multiplication

Saw this on a bus, riding home from work one day:

This is a really risky thing to wish for. What if someone wishes a painful death for him -- he could wind up with a thousand painful deaths! Alternatively, he doesn't specify the scale factor. So, perhaps I wished he earns a million dollars -- that could be multiplied by -10,000.

LOST Bucket of *tools* near here

So sad, very tempted to call just to comfort the guy (or girl)

Deer crossing credit card design

Regular blog readers will know that I have this thing with credit cards. My last pizza card was a great success ... until they send me a new card with a fancy 'chip' right where I would have cut out the slice!

I used a non-mutilated version of the pizza card for a month or two (and surprisingly continued to get nice reactions from folks – just for having a pizza on the card) but I got tired of having the card without any physical damage so I created  a new one.

After doing a few tests on the old card with drills etc, the best method was to melt the holes in was to press quickly with a fire-heated nail. The card has really satisfying crater-like impressions in the back of the card which you can feel when you handle it.

So far reactions from my friends have been nice - but no stranger has commented. This is a huge difference from the pizza card where almost everybody comments. My guess now is that they notice, but because of the implication of guns they are afraid to say anything. Also note that I mis-positioned one of the holes to be over the magnetic strip and had to just scratch it on the surface instead of punching it all the way through.

As always, appreciate feedback in the comments!

Static

I recently arranged a modern art piece in the entranceway to our house:

Static, 2016