The North Korean Embassy is located about five minutes from our offices here in Berlin -- a holdover relic from the Cold War era. We often like to stroll over to the gate to see the latest glossies of Kim Jong Il celebrating his starving and proletariat state. There are images of Jong Il visiting farmers to celebrate a new harvest, paying his respects to factory workers and, of course, snapshots of the expensive military parades in Pyongyang, where no frill is too expensive -- even though the famine belt begins not too far away. So we were thrilled to run across NK News's "Database of North Korean Propaganda ," which keeps tabs on the latest rantings from propaganda vessel KCNA and the musings of the rogue everyone loves to hate and laugh at. Entries are neatly and conveniently categorized by topics like Bush Administration, "burning hatred," the peculiar "goat farm," and nuclear test.

Hunter S. Thompson Ready for Final Fling

Hunter S. Thompson was to journalism what Keith Richards is to rock and roll. Until his suicide six months ago, Thompson had doggedly lived a life of marvellous excess and literary excellence , laying the foundations of a modern myth in the riotous process. His anarchic, free-spirited existence, which refused to be constrained by custom or convention, nor subservient to authority and received wisdom, sadly met its end at the barrel of a gun earlier this year.

Thompson was best known for his exploration and excoriation of the American dream in the novel "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". He was a prolific writer, both of fiction and non-fiction, whose career took off after taking a job at Rolling Stone magazine (where he regularly took the opportunity to savage the presidency of Richard Nixon). The magazine infamously despatched him to report on the "Rumble in the Jungle" (Muhammad Ali's famous boxing contest with George Foreman in Zaire). His editor would later brand the trip, "the biggest, f*$#ed-up journalistic adventure in the history of journalism," after Thompson refused to watch the fight and sold his plane ticket home -- allegedly to buy drugs.

This rollercoaster life of breathtaking breadth and creativity will finally come to an end this weekend. His cremated remains are to be launched from a purpose-built 150-foot long cannon , pre-packed with fireworks, as was Hunter's personal wish. Among the mourners will be Johnny Depp, who played Thompson in the film version of "Fear and Loathing," and who, it is rumoured, will pick up the $2 million bill for the memorial service.  After a life of outlandish escapades and unrestrained mayhem, may Hunter S. Thompson rest in peace. We salute you.

Want a Coaster with that Beer?

The German tradition of beer coasters is as well respected as the country's beer purity laws. A tipple just wouldn't be same without a coaster resting beneath it. While one traditional function is to advertise a particular brand of ale, these days they serve a more useful function: to write down your phone number when you pick someone up at a bar. Today, our tip of the hat goes to Boing Boing , who have pointed us to a wonderful Flickr gallery of 1970s beer coasters .