And now a word from the folks at Belmash Power Tools

And that word is "satisfaction", that being the name of the 2000s pseudo-music video to which this one pays homage. The hotties lipsyncing the word and twerking [Ed., is that what it's called? I'm so old...] are employees of the Belmash company, a manufacturer of power tools based in Mogilev, Belarus.



It was those lovelies who persuaded the company to allow them to wear more revealing attire to work during a recent spell of hot weather. (Air conditioning is unknown in Belarus, it seems, and thank goodness for that!) Belmash's new dress code allows employees to wear "swimsuits and beautiful lingerie" when testing equipment (drills, saws, log-splitters and suchlike) if it is hotter than 27C (80.6F) outside. Presumably this applies only to female employees. The word "sexism" doesn't translate into Belarussian. [Yes, it is a distinct language, not the same as Russian. Ed.]

Walt's comment: Let's see the Swazi girls top this!

On this special day, Walt salutes wimmin!

Mrs Walt (who prefers "Mrs" to "Ms") reminds me that today is International Women's Day, or, as the ultra-PC spelling has it, "Wimmin's Day". That's great. I love women... much better than the alternatives. [Trannies? Sheep? Ed.] To prove it, I am happy to feature a fetching photo of Copper Wimmin, "three obstreperous young women ["wimmin"! Ed.] who set audiences on fire with their brilliant lyrics, haunting voices and fierce harmonies."

That description may have been taken from the cover of one of their CS, called "Womyn". Thought you'd like to see the cover art.

Thus endeth Walt's Salute to Wimmin. You're welcome.

Endnote: Readers who like both wimmin and bikes won't want to miss a series of photo images called "Wimmin on bikes". Click here to see #447. You're welcome (again).

Great restaurant deal! Discount based on bra size!

Walt has asked Agent 88 to verify a report in the Qianjiang Evening Post of a restaurant whose name translates as "Trendy Shrimp" offering discounts to female customers based on the size of their, errr, bras. Sounds like a great meal deal to Walt, but mainland Chinese society is actually quite conservative, and the local blue-stockings are throwing a hissy about sexism, exploitation of women, yada yada yada.

Trendy Shrimp, located in the delightful city of Hangzhou, is being criticized for a recent promotion -- ended after this news went viral -- in which they offered female patrons a discount based on their bra sizes. The bigger the cup, the bigger the discount! Specifically, a woman who wore an A cup bra was entitled to a 5% discount; a woman with a B was entitled to 15%; a C cup earned a 25% discount; and so on. The signboard shown below mentions a G cup but if such a thing exists, you'd never see one (or two) in China!

The sign's caption reads "The whole city is looking for BREASTS!"

The Evening Post quotes a Ms Zhu, a local resident, as saying "This content [is] vulgar advertising. In addition, I think it is discriminatory against women." Walt would reply that it is only discriminatory against some women. No mention is made of Ms Zhu's cup size.

Ms Zhu and several others are reported to have complained to the mayor, asking for the removal of the advertising materials. Lan Shenggang, Trendy Shrimp's manager, said he would remove the posters "in order to reduce the impact on passersby." Not long afterewards, the promotion was discontinued entirely.

Mr Lan told the Evening Post that while the promotion was in effect, "customer numbers rose by about 20 percent." He added that some of the women were proud to receive the discount. "They had nothing to hide," he said.

"Naked" women's cycling team uniforms raise eyebrows (etc)

The Giro di Toscana, Italy's annual "Tour of Tuscany" bicycle race, should draw more attention than usual this year, if only for the unusual competition uniforms to be sported by the team from Colombia, shown below.

Walt predicts onlookers will onlook twice, or three times, or more, as these ladies pass by. What you see is -- need it be said -- just a design painted on their one-piece speedos. Still, the uniforms are certainly eye-catching, aren't they? [What do they look like from the back? Ed.]

The Colombian team is sponsored by the capital city of Bogota, and backed by the Colombian government. Does this mean that sexism is still alive and well -- officially endorsed, even -- in Latin America? Protests from the usual wimmin's groups are expected within the hour.

Sexist, racist, insufferably cute "Hello Kitty" VIDEO - watch it here

Yes, folks, Walt has it for you. Be the first [more likely 4 millionth. Ed.] to see the official "Hello Kitty" video, starring Canuck singing phenom Avril Lavigne, accompanied by harujuku dancers, rolling around in their underwear as every silly kitty should.



Whaddya think? Idolator.com calls "Hello Kitty" probably the worst thing you’ll watch all week. The Mirror calls it “so bad that it’s actually quite good".

But is it racist and/or sexist? Entertainment Weekly's Darren Franich [Who he? Ed.]says, "There are serious questions about whether it’s offensive (expressionless Asian dancers, Tokyo-as-prop) or offensively obvious (this one’s for you, large Japanese fanbase!). There are even more serious questions about the title, 'Hello Kitty', which is also like half of the lyrics, and which everyone agrees is a double entendre."

Walt finds Ms Lavigne's video ever so cute, which seems to be the point. But is it music?! Ha. Hahahahahahaha...