The council will close the centre of the city to traffic for the day and are considering erecting two giant screens in George Square so visitors and locals can watch the action live.

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From time to time, George brought in giant vegetables that he grew in a greenhouse, including an onion he cultivated which was almost as big as a basketball, its skin like parcel paper.

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In 2004, led by then president George W. Bush, the US cast a giant shadow throughout the world.

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"The costs per thousand are out of whack, " said George Janson, director of print for GroupM, a subsidiary of advertising agency giant WPP, whose clients include Ikea, Mars Inc.

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But despite the best efforts of conservationists -- and the presence of two female giant tortoises from a close subspecies sharing his enclosure at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz -- George remained a solitary creature.

CNN: Lonesome George, last of the Pinta Island tortoises, dies