[ReverseEngineer]

Perhaps WWIII will not be characterized by an exchange of Nuclear Weapons, but of shoes!

A protester threw an athletic shoe at the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, during his speech at Cambridge University’s concert hall on Monday, seven weeks after a similar incident involving President Bush in Iraq.

NYT

With a SECOND shoe now thrown at a Head of State making the MSM, you can be almost assured that whenever a Politician running one of these failing states (all of them) speaks in public, SOMEBODY is going to hurl footwear. LOL.

What is the solution to this problem for TPTB? Will all Press Conferences be Barefoot in the future? "Shoes must be removed before entering the Briefing Room." LOL.

You I trust read they took down the Shoe Statue erected in Iraq in honor of the Iraqui Journalist who Pitched his Shodding at Bush a while back. This statue is probably worth millions at Sotheby's now.



I can think only of Belushi in the Cafeteria in "Animal House". (you know he ended up a Senator at the end of that classic film) Belushi on the Floor of the US Senate....

SHOE FIGHT!

Reverse Engineer

[Crazy_Dad]

Perhaps WWIII will not be characterized by an exchange of Nuclear Weapons, but of shoes! --snip-- I can think only of Belushi in the Cafeteria in "Animal House". (you know he ended up a Senator at the end of that classic film) Belushi on the Floor of the US Senate.... SHOE FIGHT!

My shoes have holes in them - no joke. But I'm sure they will still get the message when I lob one. I think this is the best arabic custom to hit the west since we borrowed their numeral system.

[ReverseEngineer]

My shoes have holes in them - no joke. But I'm sure they will still get the message when I lob one. I think this is the best arabic custom to hit the west since we borrowed their numeral system.

Go in Peace Crazy Dad Let your Shoes do the Talking here.

[Plantagenet]

The French custom of protesting by hurling cobblestones is much more effective...

[toast]

I'm sure you heard this one. Venezuelan demonstrators adopted the same arabic shoes throwing ritual at the Israeli embassy, a few weeks back. It's suppose to be the ultimate humiliation.

[lper100km]

Enterprising shoe manufacturers should by now be looking into the aerodynamics of footwear. Clearly shoes are becoming a multi-function personal accessory and with ingenuity even more uses may be identified in future. Would a heavyweight cross trainer with air springs in the heel be a better throw than a low profile, Italian made, pointy toe slip-on? Would patent leather be truer in flight than the patchwork mixed materials now popular. Would the tread pattern modify the flight path? Would trailing laces create a drag effect? What of the techniques associated with launching a shoe? Is it better to grip the toe and sling the shoe with an over arching motion, perhaps with a wrist flip at the moment of release? Perhaps a firm grip across the sole and a full bodied hurl would provide a more powerful thrust at launch. Could a curve be imparted to the flight trajectory in order to deceive the target? Baseball pitchers could be a valuable resource in such an investigation, though they lack experience in head shots. These questions beg scientific enquiry. Perhaps some enterprising research establishment – DARPA, NASA? – could secure appropriations from the $800bn slush fund to examine this emerging technology and its potential benefit to the economy of the free world. Whoever is the first to commercially exploit this phenomenon will surely find many others following in their footsteps. I’m thinking of patenting a preliminary design for a quick release, dedicated slip over ‘throw shoe’ for planned degradation situations, or perhaps even a rip off sole for emergency insult use. Time from de-shoe to target should be reduced considerably, thus maximizing confusion. You do want to make a getaway once both shoes have been let loose and that’s not always easy if you are barefoot.

I can see a potential secondary industry in shoe launchers. Whilst these would lack the immediacy of personal, close range intervention, they could have value in longer range defamation situations. I envisage a carbon fibre platform fashioned as a walking stick with a concealed launch mechanism powered by nano-butyl elasticated propellant and maybe fitted with a laser sight. A special compressed shoe could be pre-loaded which would fully expand in the first second of flight into one of several user determined configurations.

Maybe airport security will be more wary of requiring passengers to remove their shoes after this sudden spate of shoe aggression. They may well decide that it is actually safer to let passengers remain shod than to risk the agony of humiliation.

[Dreamtwister]

Well it's just so hard to find grenades these days...

[Madpaddy]

Ah no, I'm so disappointed. I thought RE had become an expert in the traditional gaelic game of hurling and I was eager to hear his opinions on the boots the players wear.

I can't understand why Ireland's nationalsport hasn't gone global.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM-kB1e96CA

[toast]

It's nice to document how far this hurling footwear fad wiil persist.

Israeli speaker pelted with shoes

During a talk at the Apollo Hotel in Amsterdam on Sunday, Israeli speaker Ron Edelheit was pelted with shoes thrown by members of the audience. Mr Edelheit was a spokesman for the Israeli army during its recent offensive in the Gaza Strip. Police arrested two men and one woman, all in their early twenties. Outside the hotel, around fifty others protested against Mr Edelheit's visit, in what police said was a peaceful manner.

[bodigami]

Perhaps WWIII will not be characterized by an exchange of Nuclear Weapons, but of shoes! NYT --snip-- What is the solution to this problem for TPTB? Will all Press Conferences be Barefoot in the future? "Shoes must be removed before entering the Briefing Room." LOL.(...)

...so funny. Maybe shoes will become anarchist or anti-authoritarian symbols... again

[bodigami]

Enterprising shoe manufacturers should by now be looking into the aerodynamics of footwear. Clearly shoes are becoming a multi-function personal accessory and with ingenuity even more uses may be identified in future. --snip-- Maybe airport security will be more wary of requiring passengers to remove their shoes after this sudden spate of shoe aggression. They may well decide that it is actually safer to let passengers remain shod than to risk the agony of humiliation.

and pairs of shoes will now be sold as triads (2 to wear, 1 to throw at "authorities").

[bencole]

A protester threw an athletic shoe at the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, during his speech at Cambridge University’s concert hall on Monday, seven weeks after a similar incident involving President Bush in Iraq.

why waste a perfectly good shoe?

[rangerone314]

How about Random Task throwing his shoe in "Austin Powers"?

I'd like a pair of shoes like those!

[Dreamtwister]

...so funny. Maybe shoes will become anarchist or anti-authoritarian symbols... again

LOL! Great reference!