Umbettung

The reburial or reinterment of a body sharing the same female DNA as Richard III and many others recalls the Umbettung of Friedrich der Große in 1991. At least the pomp and ceremony in the former case will not be limited by the wishes of Richard to a burial at night by the light of carriage lamps.

640px-Grabplatte_Friedrich_II._Schuschke

Grabplatte Friedrich II. Schuschke von SK49 – Eigenes Werk. Lizenziert unter CC BY 3.0 über Wikimedia Commons

(Spiegel article on Richard III)

See also Operation Bodysnatch on the saltmine.

The time of day

I was toying with the idea of attending a free webinar by STAR Transit – in fact, I registered. This was the time given, although I didn’t know if they were referring to the time in Germany or the UK:

Dear Participants,

thank you for your interest in the webinar

“You asked, we listened: What’s new in Service Pack 8”

on 18.12.2014 at 16:00 a.m. (GMT +1:00).

We use the webinar software TeamViewer. To watch and listen to the webinar,
you can participate with the speakers of your computer.

To join the webinar, click this link:

Possibly there would be not much new for me, but at all events I was at my desk at 15.30 British time, which would be 16.30 German time, though not a.m. When I clicked the link at 16.00 British time (apparently that is currently GMT) I was informed that the webinar had already ended.

STAR didn’t cast any light on this, but they did say that the webinar has been recorded and will be available soon.

Happy interpreters video

A video showing happy interpreters at the UN in New York.
Happy Interpreters
from Empanadilla de Atún 1 day ago / via Final Cut Pro Not Yet Rated

To dispel the tower of Babel and other clichés about us we thought that this holiday season we would show you what we really do and what we are really like. Don’t be afraid- no other humans or animals suffered during filming, no extra budgetary resources were required. Not even the need to talk about multilingualism, cost cutting, increased efficiency, doing more for less or any of those buzz words. We have managed to use a universal language and we hope it makes you feel HAPPY.

Apparently this is not the first cover of Pharrell Williams’ video.

Thanks to Elm.

Notting Hill carnival – not

I didn’t go to the Notting Hill Carnival because it was pouring with rain (might have meant less of a crush though) and I was going to a Chinese film anyway. I was also disturbed by Time Out’s recommendation that you shouldn’t take a digital camera in case it gets stolen.

Canon Deutschland has just sent me a newsletter recommending the carnival, which it claims takes place on the last weekend in August every year (that would be tomorrow), and suggesting that I should get there early to get a good photography position. But surely not eleven-and-a-half months early?

Eine andere Veranstaltung, die einen Besuch wert ist, ist der Notting Hill Carnival, das größte Straßenfestival Europas, das jedes Jahr am letzten Wochenende im August stattfindet. Das zweitägige Festival zieht über eine Million Feiernde an und erweckt mit viel Musik und Tanz die sonst verschlafenen Straßen des Londoner Künstlerviertels zum Leben. Das Tolle daran: Die Veranstaltung ist kostenlos.

Der Notting Hill Carnival wurde 1965 von der schwarzen Gemeinde Londons ins Leben gerufen mit dem Ziel, die Menschen zusammenzubringen und die Musik und Kultur der Karibik zu feiern. Er bot den Londonern die Möglichkeit, in eindrucksvoll verzierten Kostümen auf den Straßen zu tanzen und zu feiern. In unserem neuen Kurzfilm, der die Einführung unseres Fotomanagement-Services irista feiert, erfahren Sie mehr über das Festival und eines seiner Gründungsmitglieder.

Im Laufe seiner 50-jährigen Geschichte ist der Notting Hill Carnival immer größer geworden. Er ist ein unvergleichliches Erlebnis und bietet Fotografen mit seinen farbenprächtigen Kostümen, weltoffenen Feiernden und inspirierenden Atmosphäre viele tolle Gelegenheiten für Schnappschüsse. Wenn Sie etwas früher kommen, finden Sie noch einen guten Platz, um die atemberaubenden Kostüme der Hauptparade zu fotografieren. Oder stürzen Sie sich bei Sonnenuntergang in die tanzenden Menschenmassen und halten Sie das Geschehen bei wunderschönem, fast magischem Licht fest.

German men’s first names

Andrew Hammel is concerned about the Christian names of the German football team (Remigius-Ekkehard Scores!, ending with an interrobang).

Yesterday the German men’s national soccer team won the World Cup. But what sort of names did these “‘Germans'” have? Per and Philipp are just barely acceptable, but Toni? Kevin? Mario? Sami? Manuel?

Manuel?!

Did we lose a war, people?!

But in the interim period, forgetting the Remigiuses and Siegfrieds (I know a couple of Ekkehards, somewhat younger than me), there are quite a few weird German male names. I once spent half an hour with a friend, going through all the ones we could think of.

With apologies in advance to those affected, what about:

Uwe, Udo, Lars, Bodo, Axel, Tillmann, Rüdiger, Wolfgang, Wolf, Heribert, Egon, Golo, Friedhelm, Hans-Werner, Horst, Günter, Jörg, Eberhard.

When Friedwald was first introduced, I thought it might make a German first name.

Of course some curious English names too. Wayne is odd, but his elder son Kai a normal German name.

So the first fruit has fallen from Wayne Rooney’s loins. Coleen Rooney gave birth to an 8lb boy yesterday, which the couple have named Kai.

The name appears to have various origins across different cultures. Babynames.com asserts that it is Hawaiian in origin and means ocean, although it adds that Kai could also come from “the Welsh form of Caius”, which apparently means “the keeper of the keys”. Meanwhile babynames.co.uk, a company presumably not linked to babynames.com, insists Kai is of Scandinavian origin, meaning “rejoice”.