July 31, 2004
We just got home from downtown Tunis where we went to the Royal Jordanian airlines office. And well finally, we got our tickets to Amman / Jordan. The nice woman there even gave us a student discount :) We'll be leaving on August 29th. It's already been two years since I last visited Amman, in fact it's also been two years since I last travelled to anywhere. I was planning to go to Jordan last year, but I had to cancel because of my work, and my wife visited her parents alone :( Anyway 2 years is a long time...
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July 30, 2004
Just thought I'd publish a list of some of my current favourites: Favourite Holiday Destination: Thailand Favourite Place to Live: Phi Phi Island (Thailand) Favourite Place in my Country: Sidi Bou Said Favourite Perfume: Higher (Dior) Favourite Food: Couscous (Tunisian National Dish) Favourite Fast-food Meal: Burger King's Double Whopper Favourite Drink: My wife's Ice Tea Favourite Book: Nineteen Eighty Four (George Orwell) Favourite Singer: Tina Arena Favourite Group: The Corrs Favourite Song: Open Road (Gary Barlow) Favourite Actor: John Cusack Favourite Movie: Lord of the Rings Favourite Politician: None Favourite Pass-time: Watching Movies Favourite Hangout: Home :P Favourite Car: BMW...
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July 29, 2004
Just like Asimov's three laws of robotics, here are the three laws of Republicans: A Republican may not injure a corporation, or, through inaction, allow a corporation to come to harm. A Republican must obey the orders given it by corporations except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A Republican must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. This is simply hilarious, lol... I love it... [Via Billmon]...
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I heard of Mecca-Cola a while back and today I stumbled upon their website where I got to learn more about them. Mecca-Cola is a charity business created to use it's profit to help relieve human suffering where action is still possible. 10% of the profit it makes goes to the children of Palestine and another 10% goes to local charity acts in the countries of distribution. Mecca-Cola last donated 111,000 US$ to needy Palestinian students. I think this is great. And I wish more and more people would actually start businesses like this in which the aim is not...
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Posted on July 29, 2004 11:06 AM under:
Music
I just bought The Corrs' new album Borrowed Heaven a couple of days ago, and well let's just say it's been playing in my car non-stop ever since. I've been a fan of The Corrs ever since I heard "Only When I Sleep" from their album Talk On Corners. After that, I went on to buy all their albums starting from Forgiven Not Forgotten to Borrowed Heaven passing by the great Unplugged. I love their music, their style is simply unique. This album continues on the same tone. It lifts you off the ground with it's sweet tunes and lyrics,...
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July 28, 2004
"Our government is pouring petrol on the flames by instructing its representatives around the world to stigmatize all criticism of its actions as anti-Semitism. This way it sticks the label of anti-Semitism on the entire world, from the UN General Assembly and the International Court of Justice to humanitarian organizations. It is easy to create this confusion when one does not differentiate between 'Jewish' and 'Israeli'. Everything becomes mixed up: anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, criticism of Israel, criticism of Sharon. Such a mix-up is convenient for those interested in manipulations, but it not good for the Jews. 'Jew' and 'Israeli' are...
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Canadian Immigration officials are requiring that exotic dancers looking to enter Canada submit nude photos of themselves dancing, so ensure that they aren't nude-dancer-impersonators, sneaking into the country to do other kinds of work. The potential dancers have to prove they can dance in the nude, immigration lawyer Mendel Green said Monday. "They can't be partially nude," he said. "If they don't have pictures in the nude, they are not going to wiggle their bottoms in Canada." Lol... Now, that's funny... [Via Boing Boing]...
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Posted on July 28, 2004 08:59 AM under:
Cinema
I just watched Spiderman 2 last night. After hearing so much about it and reading all the great reviews it got, I've been itching to see it. And well, what do I think after seeing it? Well, I enjoyed the movie a lot. It's a lot of fun, the action is cooler than the first, the villain is greater (I always thought Doc Ock was the best villain in the Spiderman comics), the story is nice, the miserable love story goes on and the cinematography, photography, special effects and directing are great. This movie is a must see for fans...
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July 27, 2004
Now, call me ignorant or stupid even, but explain to me how UN sanctions on Sudan could help end the crisis that's happening in Darfur? The US and EU are pushing for these sanctions if the Sudan government doesn't move in to stop the bloodshed in Darfur. Darfur is a region as big as France, and Sudan is one of the poorest countries on Earth. How in hell are they supposed to get the necessary means to control this situation and solve it alone? And instead of stepping in and helping them with whatever is possible, sanctions are imposed on...
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July 26, 2004
This is a very touching Palestinian poem addressing the American people written by Gihad Ali. I just found it and just had to share it with you guys here. Eye to Eye by: Gihad Ali Look into my eyes And tell me what you see. You don't see a damn thing, 'cause you can't possibly relate to me. You're blinded by our differences. My life makes no sense to you. I'm the persecuted Palestinian. You're the American red, white and blue. Each day you wake in tranquility, No fears to cross your eyes. Each day I wake in gratitude, Thanking...
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Now, this is really nice. It seems these days are lucky days for us :) Saturday night, on our way home from my parents' place, we suddenly felt like going for a drink at some café, and my wife suggested Miami, not the US Miami, our Miami. It's an area full of cafés and restaurants in Les Berges du Lac overlooking the lake of Tunis. It's actually called Miami after the name of the first café that opened there. So we went there and as we were sipping away at our lemonade and Boga (Tunisian sprite-like soft drink), this guy...
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July 25, 2004
The Arab world's opinion of the US has further deteriorated in the last two years over widespread impressions of an "unfair Middle East policy", two new polls have found. An overwhelming percentage of 3,300 Arabs polled said US policies, rather than American values, shaped their overall attitudes towards the US. The polls underscored the frustrations with the Iraq war. The majority said the war would result in more chaos, more terrorism against the US, and less democracy. Respondents answered "nothing at all" when asked to identify "the best thing that comes to mind" about America. Top responses to the "worst...
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Yesterday was one hot day. We woke up relatively early (for a weekend) and we went out for a couple of errands, and by the time we were home we were dying from the heat. Only one solution to that: The Sea. So, we threw our swimwear on and headed off to the beach. Living in Tunis, the closest beaches are: La Marsa, Gammarth, La Goulette, Rawad, Sidi Bou Said and Carthage. But I personally don't like swimming in any of those places for various reasons. My favourite beaches are scattered around the north of Tunisia in the Governorate of...
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A virus purporting to show images of Osama bin Laden's suicide popped up on the Internet on Friday, designed to entice recipients to open a file that unleashes malicious software code, security experts said. The virus was attached to a message that was posted on over 30,000 Usenet newsgroups and is not being spread via e-mail yet. The fake bin Laden suicide file, when opened, unleashes a Trojan horse that makes it possible for attackers to take over infected personal computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system. [Source: Wired]...
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July 23, 2004
The world's first beauty pageant for women who have undergone plastic surgery is to be staged in China this November. A spokesman for the organisers said contestants would have to produce doctor's certificates confirming their charms were not natural. He added that to avoid a series of bungled rush jobs participants also had to have gone under the knife no later than May 29 this year. Now, let's imagine this. A group of obsessed women with oversized breasts, lips, buttocks and what more fighting over which one of them actually looks artificially better. Should be quite interesting for an artificially...
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July 22, 2004
The following is a short, succinct article that tells a lot, written by Hashem Said, a young Palestinian student in Washington State University, for which the paper - under pressure, as usual, from pro-Israeli activists - had to apologize. This was forwarded to me back in 2002, and I stumbled upon it today while sniffing around my old emails, and I thought I'd share it with you guys here. I am Israel By Hashem Said The Daily - Washington State University, Feb. 25, 2002 I am Israel - I came to a land without a people for a people without...
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After being a loyal SharpReader user for quite a while now and using it as my default feed reader, yesterday I stumbled across another one called RSS Bandit. I installed it, ran it, and loved it. In only a few seconds it lured me in and it became my default feed reader. It's really a neat piece of software. It's written in C# too, and it's open source. I've downloaded the source code and am thinking of doing some customization in it if I actually find time to, mainly in the looks because the rest is going fine. Anyway, if...
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Aaron Swartz presents three reasons why Al-Qaeda wants President Bush to be re-elected. Reuters reported a letter from an al-Qaeda group that said "it supported U.S. President George W. Bush in his reelection campaign, and would prefer him to win in November rather than the Democratic candidate John Kerry, as it was not possible to find a leader 'more foolish than you (Bush), who deals with matters by force rather than with wisdom. A top CIA expert on al-Qaeda has concluded that al-Qaeda loves President Bush, and might go so far as to plan an election attack to rally the...
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July 21, 2004
Central members of Kristiansand Progress party (Frp) claims Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and the Koran are one of the same, and they want Islam banned in Norway. "It is about high time Norway and Europe make the ideology Islam and the practice of this, illegal and punishable in the same way as Nazism," said Karina Udnaes, deputy leader of the Progress party's city council group in Kristiansand. Halvor Hulaas, chairperson in Krstiansand Frp, says: "The religion as it is practiced is a threat against our social system and way of life." He goes on to say that Kristiansand now lives...
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"I Want to Be the Peace President"... "Nobody wants to be the war president. I want to be the peace president... The next four years will be peaceful years." -- George W. Bush Yeah right! After waging two wars and obviously starting to get things ready for the next ones, this is a really stupid thing to say. I'd laugh if I weren't so disgusted. Peace President my ass! [Via Je Blog]...
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July 20, 2004
So George W. Bush has promised that if re-elected in November he will make regime change in Iran his new target. And he says that his administration is investigating possible links between Iran and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, although CIA Director John McLaughlin said there was no connection and that Iran did not support the attacks. So here they go again, trying to build false links between a country and Al Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks, even though their intelligence people tell them there are none, all in an attempt to set the stage for a possible new war....
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July 19, 2004
Posted on July 19, 2004 09:27 PM under:
Tunisia
The 10 golden rules for driving in Tunisia ;) Get in the car and make sure you don't fasten your seat belt. ( It's considered a bad habit.) Try to avoid looking in your side mirrors or front mirror. Mirrors in cars are made only to check on your appearance. Before you start your engine, make sure a car is passing by, And then start driving. Do not warn the drivers behind you of your intentions to stop, just step on the brakes and stop as suddenly as you possibly can. Remember to cross the traffic light only when it's...
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So Google have acquired Picasa, the digital photo software maker, and now they're offering their product for free. I just downloaded it and man does this look like some sweet piece of software to import, organize, edit and do loads of cool stuff with your photos in. It's really cool and a must for everyone. Check it out here. Don't you just love Google more and more with every move they make....
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I've known Maktoob ever since they were first born into this world as a little startup that offered a heavy java applet based free arabic email service out of a villa near the 2nd circle in Amman / Jordan. As the Internet boom reached the Arab world, Maktoob grew and they started venturing into other fields slowly but steadily unlike others. They started by growing their site into a portal and creating a number of other big services inlcuding an auctions site Mazad Maktoob which was very interesting and maybe the only arab auctions site that worked. They later launched...
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George W. Bush has promised that if re-elected in November he will make regime change in Iran his new target. A US government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that military action would not be overt in changing Iran, but rather that the US would work to stir revolts in the country and hope to topple the current conservative religious leadership. The official said: “If George Bush is re-elected there will be much more intervention in the internal affairs of Iran.” So, they're still in the middle of all the mess they created in Iraq, but they're still thirsty...
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July 18, 2004
"I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job." -- President Bush, quoted in the Lancaster New Era, during a private meeting with an Amish group. Yeah right! For America... Next time you vote for president, can you PLEASE choose someone who doesn't think he's the Son of God or something?! [Via Political Wire]...
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July 17, 2004
Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings. They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's south-western suburbs. Iraq's Interior Minister, Falah al-Naqib, is said to have looked on and congratulated...
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July 16, 2004
One sunny day in 2005 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Ave, where he'd been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the US Marine standing guard and said, "I would like to go in and meet with President Bush." The Marine looked at the man and said, "Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here." The old man said, "Okay" and walked away. The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, "I would like to go in and meet with President Bush."...
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July 15, 2004
The ball that David Beckham blasted into the stands when he missed a penalty in England's Euro 2004 quarter final shootout defeat by Portugal has attracted a 10 million euro bid (Approximately US $12,384,000) on ebay and it still has 7 days to go so the price could go even higher. Pablo Carral, a 25-year-old Spanish football fan who claimed the trophy when it landed in his arms in Row Q of the Luz stadium in Lisbon decided to put the ball up for sale on the Spanish site of Internet auctioneers eBay after a British newspaper offered to buy...
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So the long-awaited PHP5 is finally out. I can't wait to play around with this baby when I find time for it. Some of the key features of PHP 5 include: A better Zend Engine II Better XML support focused around the excellent libxml2 library. SimpleXML extension for easily accessing and manipulating XML as PHP objects. A brand new built-in SOAP extension for interoperability with Web Services. SQLite has been bundled with PHP. (After all MySQL sold out and went commercial on them) Streams have been greatly improved, including the ability to access low-level socket operations on streams. Obviously, like...
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July 14, 2004
A media conference held by Al-Jazeera TV channel in Qatar this week tackled the thorny issue of what role, if any, the broadcaster should play in spreading political reform throughout the Arab world. There are different views on this from people arguing that all media has an obligation to be involved in politics, to others who think that media should just inform and not reform, while other people would just like to see the channel translate its audience growth into income (obivously management, "I don't care what you do! Just show me the money."). Anyway, I think this is a...
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Here's another Meme, started by A Whole Lotta Nothing, and tracked by Kottke. How many clicks does it take to get from Google's homepage to your website without using the search box? For me, it's eight. Google > More > Directory > Internet > On The Web > Weblogs > Personal > S > Subzero Blue [Via eclecticism]...
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July 13, 2004
I don't know how or why this popped through my mind. I just thought: Go to the oldest non-personal, non-legally-dangerous forward in your email inbox, copy it and paste it in your blog. So here it is, the oldest forward in my inbox on my laptop (I'm sure I have ones that are a lot older on my pc): DEAR RECEIVER, You have just received a SYRIAN virus. Since we are not so technologically advanced in SYRIA, this is a MANUAL virus. Please delete all the files on your hard disk yourself and send this mail to everyone you know....
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If you qualify as one of the following: You have this weird itching desire to buy me something. You have certain "issues" or mental problems and you want to prove to the whole world that you're the nicest person ever. You are one cheap ass who wants to buy someone something and keep boasting about it and reminding them of it all their life. You're stalking me and you want to keep sending me things to haunt me. Then, I think you'd be interested in knowing that I've just created my wishlist on Amazon, and you can find it here....
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July 12, 2004
Posted on July 12, 2004 08:21 PM under:
Tunisia
It's summertime in Tunisia, the season of the sea, beaches, parties, clubs, coffee shops but most importantly weddings. Yep, there's certainly a lot of love in the air this time of the year. As soon as the summer starts, invitations start floating around the country, and wherever you go, whoever you visit, there seems to be an invitation waiting for you for the wedding of the brother of the cousin of your grandmother's half sister's distant relative. In short, someone you never knew existed. And wait, you're actually expected to show up. So, what should you expect at a Tunisian...
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July 10, 2004
Yesterday the International Court of Justice (I.C.J.) at the Hague published its Advisory Opinion on Israel's West Bank Wall. The court ruled in favor of the Palestinians, condemning those parts of the barrier that effectively annex Palestinian land, and calling for its dismantling in the Occupied Territories. The opinion also found that Israel was obligated to return confiscated land or make reparations for any destruction or damage to homes, businesses and farms caused by the barrier's construction. The ruling was the second against the barrier in the past two weeks. Israel's high court ruled June 30 that a section of...
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July 09, 2004
Seventeen months after the Anglo-American invasion in which President George Bush promised to bring democracy to Iraq, the country's American-approved Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, yesterday introduced legislation allowing the Iraqi authorities to impose martial law, curfews, a ban on demonstrations, the restriction of movement, phone-tapping, the opening of mail and the freezing of bank accounts. [...] Iraq therefore entered into another fatal chapter of its history yesterday, and it didn't look much like democracy. Robert Fisk [Via Je Blog]...
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Posted on July 9, 2004 09:15 AM under:
Cinema
Yesterday I finally got to see Satin Rouge by Raja Ammari, a Tunisian movie that got a lot of great reviews when it was released back in 2002. I heard and read so much about it, and have been wanting to see it for a long time, but never really got around to it. Anyway, after seeing it, I understand why it got all the great reviews. It's a really nice and well done movie. Maybe one of the best Tunisian movies yet. It's the story of a widow who's raising her adolescent daughter on her own and who's leading...
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Posted on July 9, 2004 08:40 AM under:
Cinema
So, it seems like there'll be a third part to Tarantino's Kill Bill saga. But don't get too excited. It won't be out for another 15 years. Quentin Tarantino said Monday he plans to shoot a third part of the Kill Bill vengeance series. "I have plans, actually not right away, but like in 15 years from now, I'll do a third version of this saga," the director said at a news conference to promote "Kill Bill" Vol. 2, which opens in Spain next month. Tarantino said part three would focus on the daughter of a hired killer that Uma...
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If the goal were security, Israel would have built the fence a few km inside its borders. It could then be a mile high, patrolled on both sides by the IDF, mined with nuclear weapons, utterly impenetrable. Perfect security. The problem would be that it would not take valuable Palestinian land and resources (including control of water), drive out the population, and lay the basis for still further expansion as Palestinians flee from the dungeons that are left, like the town of Qalqilya. So to interpret as a land grab seems appropriate. Noam Chomsky...
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July 08, 2004
I've been wanting to start a Linklog for a long time to take the place of the occasional Link Dumps that I post and enable me to share links with you guys. And well, today I finally got around to creating one. It's somewhere on the left column. The solution I opted for is a combination I put together using del.icio.us and feedroll. I use del.icio.us to bookmark and comment interesting links I find when surfing and then feedroll to access my del.icio.us bookmarks rss and display them here. It's a simple clean solution which I think is very effective...
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July 07, 2004
These are some hilarious comments by Jay Leno on the presidential campaigns: "What was it 91-92 degrees today? Man, I was sweatin' like President Bush watching 'Fahrenheit 9/11." "John Kerry has picked John Edwards as his running mate. ... The New York Post reported John Kerry chose Dick Gephardt. But at the last second, John Kerry decided to go with a candidate with eyebrows." "As you know John Edwards is a former trial lawyer. Which is a smart move considering the last election was decided in court. Kerry may need him to step in and sue or something." "Political strategists...
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July 7th... Now, that's one day to remember for me... July 7th 1998, in the summer course, after finishing my morning lectures, again I was faced with that scheduled hour of nothing to do. No one I knew was free in that hour, everyone had lectures, and everytime I'd end up wandering around the University campus listening to my walkman or scribbling something down. But not that day. As I was walking from the faculty of science, past the square, past the university restaurant on my way to the languages center, there she was. Ok before I get into that,...
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