Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts

Friday, August 14, 2009

Berlin Currywurst Museum Opens

Germany’s favorite sausage snack enshrined

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I love Germany, currywurst and museums, so imagine my delight when I learned that a museum devoted exclusively to currywurst will open 15 August 2009 near Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure, currywurst is sliced, fried pork sausage, topped with a sauce—commonly ketchup—and curry powder.

In a nation seemingly devoted to sausage, currywurst has been a favorite since—according to legend—Berliner Herta Heuwer first concocted it in 1949.

Berlin alone boasts over 2,000 currywurst stands serving up 70 million currywursts a year and Germans as a whole consume some 800 million annually.

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Currywurst
Yum!

The new currywurst museum features an array of interactive exhibits which guide visitors along a 'sauce trail' through the history and variety of the beloved dish which has worldwide connoisseurs and even inspired a song by German musician, Herbert Groenemeyer.

Guests may climb inside a currywurst van, slice and prepare their own computer-generated offerings against the clock and watch Grace Lee's 22 minute documentary film, "Best of the Wurst" (2004).

A spice chamber scents the air with curry powder as guests relax on the giant 'sauce sofa', shaped like a squirt of ketchup while an eco-alley assesses the environmental impact of fast food.

The Deutsches Currywurst Museum is located at Schützenstraße 70, Berlin.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Implantable Chip Designed To Kill Dissidents, Hired-Help

Saudi files killer tracking chip patent

Implantable chip German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) spokeswoman Stephanie Krüger revealed Friday that the DPMA received an application from a Saudi Arabian citizen for a patent on his new invention.

The invention? Two versions of a subcutaneous chip to be implanted in humans: The first of which, according to the Jeddah-based inventor, is solely for “…the purposes of determining its geographical location.”

The inventor claims the device would use GPS tracking technology and would radio its location—and, therefore, the implantee’s—to a remote tracking center.

Now, I can think of really good uses for such a gadget, such as tracking politicians who are wont to take bribes in the form of free vacations at lavish resorts.

But then there’s the “B” model, which would—in the inventor’s words:

“…be suited for tracking fugitives from justice, terrorists, illegal immigrants, criminals, political opponents, defectors, domestic help, and Saudi Arabians who don’t return home from pilgrimages.

“In recent times the number of people sought by security forces has increased…I apply for these reasons and for reasons of state security and the security of citizens.”

In the “B” version, a controller need but press a button, sending a signal to the implant which then releases a lethal dose of cyanide into the bloodstream of the implantee.

Note that among the potential targets of this ghastly Orwellian device is listed “domestic help.” You return from a hard day’s work sentencing rape victims to torture and prison, to find that the maid hasn’t dusted your favorite beheading sword. Well, a simple touch of a button and her dinner plans are Kaput!

And if you don’t return to Saudi Arabia from your pilgrimage to, say, Las Vegas, a brief radio signal will fix your defecting tuchas.

Need I comment on the immoral, Hitlerian mindset of this—obviously well-educated and intelligent—Saudi? Likely not, but I will anyway.

Apparently, it doesn’t even occur to this lunatic that the Germans might not want to track and kill immigrants and butlers.

One wonders how typical this insane mentality may be among the rest of Saudi intelligentsia. Or the dimwits, for that matter. From all reports it seems to be the norm, rather than the exception.

But I digress…

DPMA spokeswoman Krüger added:

“Foreigners are allowed to apply for patents in Germany through a native representative, in this case it was a Munich law firm…Most people apply for a patent in several countries, and this inventor probably did too.

“While the application is still pending further paperwork on [the inventor’s] part, the invention will probably be found to violate paragraph two of the German Patent Law—which does not allow inventions that transgress public order or good morals.”

The law firm, DTS Munich, which represented the evil sonuvabitch inventor, "…resigned from representation of this case last week," a spokesman said without stating why.

Why? Well, gee, could it be… I dunno… that they finally read the patent application?

Note: If you would like to read about life in Saudi Arabia from the perspective of someone neither evil or insane and possessed of an excellent command of English, I suggest the Saudi Jeans Blog.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Obama To Open Secret Laboratories to Germany? Maybe not!

Obama To Open Secret Laboratories to Germany: That was the headline in Spiegel Online, the internet arm of Germany's Der Spiegel—one of Europe's largest weekly magazines with a circulation of more than one million per week.

On Monday, US Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano and Germany's Minister of Education and Research Annette Schavan, signed an agreement on the future scientific and technological cooperation between the two nations in the field of civil security.

Whether this cooperation goes so far as the United States opening it's secret labs to Germany, as Der Spiegel maintains, is questionable.

Maddeningly, outrageously and unacceptably, I was unable to locate a copy of this public document anywhere online—including US and German government sites. However, Heise.de claims to have obtained the full text of the document.

I have provided a synopsis of their analysis below:

The agreement was merely a "framework for the promotion, development and facilitation of bilateral scientific and technological cooperation activities in the context of civil security," and there is nothing specific in the agreement about the sharing of secret information.

The main points of the 31-page agreement are the:

  • Defense and the detection of threats to civil security and response to these threats
  • Forensic Science and placement in relation to security threats
  • Protection of critical infrastructure and key resources
  • Crisis response and consequence management and mitigation of serious events

Special attention is applied to the:

  • Development of solutions to the security of people
  • Development of solutions which increase the security of individuals without restricting their freedom

“Conversely, this means that solutions which do in fact limit civil liberties could also be developed, even if they are not the main focus of research efforts.”