Hey check this out… a few years ago I met K-Rudd at the Cannon Hill shopping centre when he was pimping to be our local member and today I see in the news a picture of him meeting Hillary Clinton (as you do when you’re the new Prime Minister) which means …. drum roll please… there’s now only Four Degrees of Separation between me and Monica Lewinsky! 😛 and like loads of other really famous people that Bill probably screwed… err, I mean … met.
.
Germany plans ‘cemetery pyramid’
By Tristana Moore. BBC News, Berlin
It sounds like an absurd idea. The plan is to build a massive pyramid, filled with human remains, on a windswept field near the city of Dessau, eastern Germany.
But the organisers of the project are adamant that this is not a PR stunt. There were pyramids in ancient Egypt, so why not in modern-day Germany, they argue. “We’re doing this because the world wants it,” said Jens Thiel, one of the initiators of the project.
“The new Great Pyramid would be a very efficient cemetery. It would have a huge capacity. A 150m-high pyramid could contain five million stones, it would be the size of six football fields and millions of people could be buried there.” Mr Thiel, an economist, has teamed up with a writer, Ingo Niermann, to develop the project and they have managed to secure a government grant.
An artist’s impression.
They say more than 700 people from all over the world have already reserved a stone, keen to have their ashes kept in the giant structure. In the future, these people will be able to buy a stone, which would cost up to 700 euros (£535; $1,070) each. “Lots of people don’t like normal cemeteries. In Britain, 50% of people want their ashes to be scattered, in the US it is about 40%,” said Mr Thiel. “The new Great Pyramid is a global monument. It’s the first cemetery for people of all nationalities and all religious beliefs. It is a very beautiful, peaceful idea.” Each concrete block would house an urn containing ashes, or memorabilia of the deceased.
Architectural competition
The organisers say the pyramid would grow gradually over the years. They’ve reserved a stone in the new pyramid because I want to be part of the project. It’s very simple, I want to be cremated and I want my ashes to be buried there,” said Jonas Obleser, a neuroscientist from Leipzig.
“The new pyramid is not a monument built for one king, it will be there for people of all faiths, for atheists, for everyone. It will grow for thousands of years. I would like to be one of the first people to be buried there.” The organisers launched an architectural competition for the construction of the pyramid last September. Architecture firms submitted their plans. and the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas headed the jury to select the final concept. On Monday, several hundred people attended a gala evening in Berlin to hear the latest developments. “We have seen four different interpretations of the pyramid – they are all interesting concepts,” Rem Koolhaas said. “In the West, we have been very phobic about death, but because of demographics, death will be imposed on all of us.
“There is a constant ageing process – it’s important that this issue is addressed and it’s a very graphic way of dealing with the topic of death. I’m curious to find out what happens in the end,” Mr Koolhaas said.
‘Taboo’
The organisers say the pyramid would act as a catalyst for job creation and economic growth – but many local residents are not so enthusiastic about the project. “Death is such a taboo,” said Mr Thiel. “We’re looking at different sites. We could build the Great Pyramid anywhere in the world. It would be a kind of theme park about life and death.”
Supporters are hoping the pyramid will find its resting place in Dessau. “It would be beautiful if the pyramid could be built here in Germany,” said Mr Obleser. Sceptics will argue that this is a far-fetched idea and opponents are bound to come up with a reactionary “not-in-my-backyard” response. The odds seem to be stacked against them, but organisers are determined to prove that they can fulfil their dreams.
As if the pretentious wankery of calling his youngest son Barron William Trump weren’t enough, my least favourite non-celebrity reality show host is in the poo for adopting illegal arms. Oh dear… what a shame! He’s gone and plastered the device over loads of marketing materials and had it made into merchandise for his Menie Estate (fancy pants golf resort) in Aberdeenshire (their website is mysteriously down…hmmm….wonder why) without consulting a herald first. It pays to do your research first people! 🙂
On top of the arms not being registered… they look just plain wrong to boot. I do believe Or on Argent is a metal on a metal and therefore illegal heraldic design…. Oh and don’t look too close, but I actually think those lions might be… sejant erect rather than rampant. But if the guess if the journalist from London’s Daily Mail isn’t to be expected to get that one right we shouldn’t reasonably expect a dumb American like Trump to get his heraldry right either. 😐
What I don’t understand is if he wanted to bear arms why didn’t he just follow the time honoured tradition of marrying into an impoverished noble family and assuming their hereditary arms. Failing that solution, surely his millions could have purchased him a title, arms and yea a box to put them into. This would have saved him from running afoul of real life heralds – which as we all know … must be the geekiest of geeks and the most pedantic of pedants. Tut tut …. Next he’ll be changing his name by deed poll to Duke Donald Trump!!!
Last updated at 23:43pm on 15th February 2008
With it’s lions rampant on a silver shield, it is an impressive coat of arms made to honour Donald Trump. But unfortunately it’s also getting the American tycoon in a lot of trouble. He faces being hauled into court after being accused of breaking ancient laws by producing the crest without permission.
Trumph tribute: His coat of arms, which has landed him in a spot of trouble
Mr Trump has been given an official warning over the coat of arms, which he has been using to promote a controversial £1billion golf course in Scotland. Officials claim he has fallen foul of an ancient Scots law by not registering the crest, which he has plastered on letterheads, jackets and hats.
And the Court of the Lord Lyon, which was created by Robert the Bruce in 1318 and enforces the historic legislation, has now asked the Scots prosecutor, the Procurator Fiscal, to see if there are grounds for prosecution. It’s the latest snag to hit the golfing development, in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, which is already at the centre of a Scottish-government investigation into how the planning application was handled.
In the past Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed faced a similar problem and was forced to take down coats of arms found at Balnagown Castle in the Highlands. It costs £900 to to register a shield with the court and more than £1,300 for the addition of a crest. Last night a spokesman for Mr Trump said that he was now working with the court to register the coat of arms.
.
Being so distant, I’ve never really become wrapped up in Middle Eastern politics, and never really had strong personal feelings about terrorism in general. Even when I traveled to Pakistan and found myself in a security lockdown due to threat of possible Taleban or Al Queda attacks I knew those attacks to be aimed at the local military which had nothing to do with me personally. That doesn’t mean to say I’ve ever sympathized with terrorist motives or methods, but I guess in my mind their attempts to enoble their cause with a certain skewed perception of religious righteousness must have taken some small root… even though I absolutely believe them to be positively and undeniably fundamentalist lunatics. I mean to say that I believe your average fundamentalist terrorist has been bought up in a determinedly bigoted environment and those individuals are products of those insidious environments of hatred, so in some ways I’ve always felt there is a miniscule amount of diminished responsibility here… they can’t always help what they’ve become if they’ve never known any other way.
But these recent bombings are callow, calculated and opportunistic in a way that I can’t imagine anyone could honestly say elevates their cause or their religious superiority/righteousness. How could anyone do something like this… ?? It’s one thing for a person cognizant of their actions to purposefully martyr themselves for a cause they believe in (no matter how fucked up that cause is) and it is another thing entirely to take advantage of the mental impairment of innocent people to do your dirty work…
More than 70 people have been killed by two bombs in Baghdad, attached to two mentally disabled women and detonated remotely, says a security official.
“The al-Qaeda terrorists and criminals are proud of this method,” Brig Qassem Ata al-Moussawi told the BBC. The death toll in Friday morning’s attacks at two animal markets was the highest in months in Baghdad. Correspondents say a fragile sense of normality had returned to the capital following an influx of US troops. Security has improved significantly since the US implemented its troop “surge” in the second half of 2007. A ceasefire announced in August by the Mehdi Army militia of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, as well as the emergence of local Sunni militia armed by the US military that took on al-Qaeda in Iraq, have also contributed to the sense of security. Figures released by Iraqi ministries on Friday suggested that the number of civilians and security forces killed across Iraq in January – 541 – was the lowest monthly total for nearly two years.
Confidence shattered
But that renewed confidence could be shattered by Friday’s deadly bombings, the worst to hit the Iraqi capital since three car bombs killed 80 people last 1 August. The blasts came shortly before the call to Friday prayers when many Iraqis were out shopping or meeting friends. The first device was detonated by a female suicide bomber at around 1020 local time (0720GMT) in the popular Ghazil animal market, killing at least 46 people and injuring a further 80. A popular spectacle for Baghdadis, the animal market only opens on Fridays and regularly draws large crowds, despite having been targeted by bombers twice in 2007.
The operation was carried out by two booby-trapped mentally disabled women 
Just 20 minutes after the first explosion, a second bomb tore through another crowded market in the Jadida area of east Baghdad, killing at least 27 people and injuring 67. Iraqi security forces spokesman Brig Moussawi told the BBC: “The operation was carried out by two booby-trapped mentally disabled women. [The bombs] were detonated remotely.
“Forensic and bomb squad experts as well as the people and traders of al-Shorja area of the carpet market have confirmed that the woman who was blown-up there today was often in the area and was mentally disabled… “In the New Baghdad area the shop owners and customers of the pet market confirmed that the woman who was blown-up there was mentally disabled as well.”
The US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, said al-Qaeda had found a “different, deadly” technique. “There is nothing they won’t do if they think it will work in creating carnage and the political fallout that comes from that,” he said.
Police and medical officials piled the dead and injured into wheelbarrows, cars and the back of pick-up trucks to be transported to five hospitals across the city. An official at the capital’s Kindi hospital said at least 30 bodies had been received. “We have a disaster here,” he said. “There are too many bodies to count.”
A surgeon who allegedly took a photo of a patient’s penis during an operation at a US hospital is no longer working there, it has been announced.
Dr Adam Hansen, of Arizona’s Mayo Clinic Hospital, is accused of taking the snap while conducting gallbladder surgery earlier in December. The trainee surgeon allegedly showed the photo to colleagues. The patient is a strip club owner, Sean Dubowik, whose penis is tattooed with the words “Hot Rod”.
A member of the surgical staff tipped off local newspaper The Arizona Republic about the incident in an anonymous call on Monday. The announcement that he was “no longer practising” at the Mayo clinic was posted on the hospital’s website. It is not clear whether he resigned or was dismissed.
The picture was allegedly taken in an operating theatre
‘Great outrage’
On the same day, Mr Dubowik, 37, learned about the photo when the Nobel Prize-winning clinic, based in Scottsdale, telephoned him. The businessman said: “I got a strange call after my surgery from a doctor who said there was a problem. He said Hansen was on the phone and would explain.”
Mr Dubowik said that the surgeon confessed to having used his mobile phone to take the picture while inserting a catheter into his penis. The patient, who said the tattoo was done for a $1,000 (£500) bet, continued: “Now I feel violated, betrayed and disgusted. The longer I sit here the angrier I get.”
Now I feel violated, betrayed and disgusted