Tag: news from the stupid

The Times reports as such:

Pope Benedict XVI is working on a doctrinal pronouncement that will condemn tax evasion as socially unjust, according to Vatican sources. In his second encyclical the most authoritative statement a pope can issue the pontiff will denounce the use of tax havens and offshore bank accounts by wealthy individuals, since this reduces tax revenues for the benefit of society as a whole.

It will focus on humanitys social and economic problems in an era of globalisation. Pope Benedict intends to argue for a world trade and economic system regulated in such a way as to avoid further injustice and discrimination, Ignazio Ingrao, a Vatican watcher, said yesterday.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2237625.ece

Now, the sentiment is nice, but I'm pissed off at the hypocrisy of the whole thing. So this goes out to the guy with the big pointy hat: the vatican is probably one of the wealthiest organizations in the world and possesses art treasures that are worth untold fortunes. And you're being pissy with other people's riches???

Um, yeah. Makes perfect sense.

In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission.

According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is “an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation.” But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country.

By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.

At 72, the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since 1959, is beginning to plan his succession, saying that he refuses to be reborn in Tibet so long as it's under Chinese control. Assuming he's able to master the feat of controlling his rebirth, as Dalai Lamas supposedly have for the last 600 years, the situation is shaping up in which there could be two Dalai Lamas: one picked by the Chinese government, the other by Buddhist monks. “It will be a very hot issue,” says Paul Harrison, a Buddhism scholar at Stanford. “The Dalai Lama has been the prime symbol of unity and national identity in Tibet, and so it's quite likely the battle for his incarnation will be a lot more important than the others.”

So where in the world will the next Dalai Lama be born? Harrison and other Buddhism scholars agree that it will likely be from within the 130,000 Tibetan exiles spread throughout India, Europe and North America. With an estimated 8,000 Tibetans living in the United States, could the next Dalai Lama be American-born? “You'll have to ask him,” says Harrison. If so, he'll likely be welcomed into a culture that has increasingly embraced reincarnation over the years. According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 20 percent of all U.S. adults believe in reincarnation. Recent surveys by the Barna Group, a Christian research nonprofit, have found that a quarter of U.S. Christians, including 10 percent of all born-again Christians, embrace it as their favored end-of-life view. A non-Tibetan Dalai Lama, experts say, is probably out of the question.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20227400/site/newsweek/

Conrad 'Barron' Hilton, head of the Hilton clan and Paris' grandfather, has cut off her million inheritance. Hilton senior, the only member of the family left with a sizeable stake in the huge hotel chain, has let it be known that he intends to donate to charity the billion he will gain from this month's sale of the company to private equity firm Blackstone.

The money will go to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the charity set up in the name of the founder of the family business. The 79-year-old patriarch is said to have told his high-living family that he is cutting Paris loose – and for good measure his other 11 grandchildren, too, none of whom will now benefit from the windfall. Instead, he is determined to carry on the family tradition for philanthropy.

“He was, and is, extremely embarrassed by how the Hilton name has been sullied by Paris,” says Jerry Oppenheimer, the author of House Of Hilton, the biography of the clan. “He doesn't want to leave unearned wealth to his family.”

I hope the money will be put to good, charitable use. It might be a bit of a slap in the face for Paris, but having said that, business is booming for her at the minute. If anything, her “jail term” only prolonged her 15 minutes of fame and it is believed that she will quadruple the million Forbes estimates she earned last year by lending her name to tacky product endorsements, perfume lines, jewellery designs and pet clothing range.

So yeah. Poor, poor Paris. It's a hard life…

RAF jets scrambled to intercept Russian planes

Two RAF fighter jets were scrambled on Tuesday to intercept two Russian planes on course for British airspace, it emerged yesterday.

The incident marked the latest escalation of tensions in the standoff between London and Moscow. As Moscow hesitated in its response to Britain's expulsion of four Russian diplomats, two Tornado fighters raced to meet the Tu95 “Bear” bombers that had been dispatched from their base near the northern port city of Murmansk in the Arctic Circle. The planes turned back before they reached British airspace.

The incident, now rare according to the RAF, but once commonplace during the Cold War, may be seen as a show of defiance by the Kremlin. But Moscow said the Russian planes were on a training flight unrelated to the current diplomatic crisis over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/19/wrussia419.xml

In a city that seems to have everything, it's amazing what we'll still be surprised to find. Take for example what CBS recently uncovered going on in the back of a pizzeria. Let's just say it's hotter than the pizza served up front. On the outside, Cordatos looks like your ordinary pizzeria, but inside customers are offered something way too hot and spicy to be found on the menu.

Lap dances. Yes, you read that correctly.

A walk through the restaurant past the pizza ovens, leads to a heavy soundproof door, where inside the back room $10 buys you a few moments of lap dancing by barely dressed exotic dancers, a dance too graphic for most newscasts.

“When you are in the Big Apple anything and everything goes,” one patron said.

The anything and everything on this menu includes extremely close body-to-body contact during the lap dance. Judging from the crowds CBS saw during our hidden camera investigation, it's a popular pit stop just blocks from ground zero, where construction workers and Wall Street traders find a slice of pleasure in the least likely of places.

“The guys go at lunch time,” one man said. “It's not a bad thing either, relieves a little pressure.”

So is this New York City's best-kept secret? Apparently not, especially to members of the NYPD's vice unit. Three years ago, several of the dancers were arrested and charged with prostitution.

While Cordatos is licensed to serve alcohol, dancing falls under the city's Cabaret Law, which requires a separate license, which the pizzeria does not have.

CBS went looking for answers and found the pizza and dancing were a lot warmer than the reception we got. Upon seeing our camera, an unidentified pizzeria worker out his hand over our lens.

During our hidden camera investigation we did not observe any nudity, however a legal expert told us that in some cases the body-to-body contact we captured on camera could be deemed criminal.

Even though several city agencies knew the pizzeria had been cited for the same offenses in the past, records show none had returned to check if any laws were being broken. In fact, the NYPD told CBS it would respond based on a complaint, which to this date has not been made.

Big deal. These people would go nuts if they saw the lunch crowd for the buffet at Super Sexe.

Sometimes, I miss Montreal and the fact that you have huge strip clubs and sex shops on the high street and nobody gives a damn.

It'll probably get me in trouble, but I miss strip clubs and the shenanigans I used to get into with the boys.

Ideal breakfast has ham, cheese

LONDON, June 24 (UPI) — A scientific study of British students' eating habits has found eating ham and cheese for breakfast can significantly improve cognitive functioning.

The study headed up by psychology professor David Benton of Wales' Swansea University found the traditional German breakfast can aid in cognitive functions like memory and attention levels, The Sunday Times of London said.

“It is all down to the glucose release of the breakfast into the bloodstream. The slower the release, the better the pupils performed,” Benton said of his study's findings.

Benton's group monitored the eating habits and cognitive performance of 6- and 7-year-olds to determine the effect of a well-balanced breakfast. Benton's group also found meals with slow-releasing glucose levels helped children stay physically fit and curbed obesity by limiting one's appetite.

“The high protein in the breakfast will release into the system slowly, and therefore it will suppress the appetite for longer, and prevent children from snacking,” he told the newspaper.

India's richest man builds 60-storey home

In the most conspicuous sign yet of India's unprecedented prosperity, the country's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is building a new home in the financial hub of Mumbai: a 60-storey palace with helipad, health club and six floors of car parking. The building, named Antilla after a mythical island, will have a total floor area greater than Versailles and be home for Mr Ambani, his mother, wife, three children and 600 full-time staff.

Draped in hanging gardens, the building will have a floor for a home theatre, a glass-fronted apartment for guests, and a two-storey health club. As the ceilings are three times as high as a normal building's, the 173m (570ft) tower will only have 27 floors.

With property prices rocketing, the building is already worth more than £500m. It is expected to be ready for the Ambanis to move in next year. The family currently live in a 14-storey building, Sea Wind. Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Group is India's largest private company, with interests in oil, retail and biotechnology. The 50-year-old became the country's first rupee trillionaire this week, taking his net worth to £14bn.

While some idolise the riches and glamour of India's “Jazz Age”, others are uncomfortable with the “new vulgarity”. Only last week India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, called on business leaders to “eschew conspicuous consumption” and “be role models of moderation”.

Praful Bidwai, a newspaper columnist, said the divide between rich and poor was becoming obscene. “Mr Ambani is building an edifice to his own ego,” he said.

“It will not go down well with the public and there is a growing tide of anger about such absurd spending.”

Firefighters in the Manchester Fire Service are allowed to rest between training but it was decided that beds were too much of a distraction, and could lead to sleeping, which is not allowed. Out go the beds. In go £400 airplane-style recliners. Total cost is £130,000

Then the fire service HR department tells the firefighters they can't USE the recliners until they have been trained in their proper use. Further more, they are NOT allowed to use their own bedding, only properly issued airline-style blankets.

Several firefighters, including a watch commander, decide it's more comfortable to bring their own sleeping bags and bed down on the floor. HR inspectors find the sleeping bags, decide they're a hazard, and bring disiplinary action against the offending firefighters………

In a word, buh?

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23398835-details/Health+and+safety+madness+as+firefighters+face+disciplinary+action+for+sleeping+on+floor/article.do?ito=newsnow&