March 31, 2005
An M&Ms tribute to Star Wars, promoting their new dark chocolate line of M&Ms debuting on April 2nd. This is so cool... loool... Check the video here: M&M's Chocolate M-Pire. [Via: eclecticism]...
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March 30, 2005
Posted on March 30, 2005 02:49 PM under:
Cinema
I finally got to watch "Million Dollar Baby" last night. The movie won a bunch of oscars this year, is directed by Clint Eastwood, features Clint himself, Hillary Swank and Morgan Freeman, and well everyone I know who has seen it has been constantly raving about how great it is. So what did I think of it? Well, of course it was great! As in all Client Eastwood movies, he takes it easy and slow, giving time to develop the characters, enriching the story, engaging the viewers and letting them use their imaginations to further develop the story in their...
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March 29, 2005
This one just cracked me up, looool... The shortest fairy tale in the world! "Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl: 'Will you marry me?' She said: 'No' ..and the girl lived happily ever after...." looool... [Via: Silly Bahraini Girl]...
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LOL... [Thanks to Orange for this one.]...
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Posted on March 29, 2005 02:22 PM under:
Cinema
Everyone said Ocean's Twelve was no way as good as Ocean's Eleven, but still I had this thought that: well, ok, it might not be as good as the first (like all sequels), but with this all-star cast on-board, I don't think it's going to be too bad either. Hmmm, well I was wrong! I'm maybe the biggest fan of heist movies, and before "The Big Bounce", I had loved every heist movie I ever saw. This movie joins the ranks of "The Big Bounce". Of course, it's relatively a lot better, but still, it sucks. Ocean's Eleven was a...
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March 28, 2005
Just a few months after the devastating earthquake and tsunamis that hit Asia, another earthquake with a magnitude of at least 8.2 on the richter scale was reported today off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on the same fault line. The quake occurred at 16:09 GMT, and is considered a "great" earthquake, the largest of seven grades. Thai officials issued a warning of a possible tsunami. A spokesman for the U.S. Geological Survey also confirmed by telling CNN that the earthquake could cause tsunamis. I hope they're wrong and that no tsunamis result of this and no damage occurs to...
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March 27, 2005
Posted on March 27, 2005 03:36 PM under:
Cinema
Acclaimed Egyptian actor Ahmad Zaki died today Sunday, March 27th 2005, at the age of 57, after a long and ferocious battle with lung cancer. The actor had been in a coma for eight days and finally his body gave up and his heart stopped beating. Before slipping into a coma earlier this month, Zaki had received calls from President Husni Mubarak. Egypt's most prominent celebrities and cultural figures had flocked to his hospital room for weeks before his death. Ahmad Zaki was one of the Arab world's greatest actors and his career is full of great movies and...
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March 26, 2005
Posted on March 26, 2005 08:39 PM under:
Books
- Arab countries' output of books represents just 1.1 percent of the world total, although Arabs constitute 5% of the world's population. This is less than what a country such as Turkey produces, with a population about one-quarter that of the Arab countries. - The Arab world translates about 330 books annually, one fifth of the number that Greece translates. - Print runs of Arab books are very low, ranging for the average novel between 1,000 and 3,000 copies only. A book that sells just 5,000 copies is considered a bestseller. - Arab book publishing has been threatened by three...
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Posted on March 26, 2005 11:51 AM under:
Cinema
Last night I watched "Alfie", featuring Jude Law, Marisa Tomei, Susan Sarandon and Nia Long. I read a bit about this movie before and saw its trailer. The trailer looked fun but the reviews weren't that good. I rented it anyways as I don't always trust reviews. I like movies in which the character has this ongoing dialogue with the viewers, I think it's really fun and cool. This movie does that and I really liked that about it. The movie is about an English womanizer and how he comes to learn the consequences of his actions the hard way....
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March 25, 2005
Today marks the 40th day since Rafik Hariri's death, and for this occasion, a group of Lebanese youth are organizing a gathering in Martyr Square in Beirut tomorrow at 14:00 where cards will be distributed to over a thousand people in order to draw his portrait. Meanwhile, demands are rising for the resignation of security officials in the government for failing to provide security, protection, law and order in Lebanon. Furthermore, the UN fact-finding mission published a report yesterday that was sharply critical of Syria and its allied Lebanese government and said that they were responsible for the political tension...
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10 Words that describe me the most: Good: I'm a pretty good person. Nice, honest, loyal, thoughtful, kind and I even wear spandex at night to fight evil-doers :P Competitive: I'm a highly competitive person. I'm extremely driven by competition, and will put all my energy into winning. Second place just isn't made for me. Lazy: I love being lazy, just hanging around doing nothing, watching movies, reading, listening to music, or whatever. Shy: I'm actually a very shy person. When I was a kid, I used to blush when talking to girls, although I got over that later. Anyway...
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March 24, 2005
This gives a new meaning to the "connection" between two people... Your body could soon be the backbone of a broadband personal data network linking your mobile phone or MP3 player to a cordless headset, your digital camera to a PC or printer, and all the gadgets you carry around to each other. These personal area networks are already possible using radio-based technologies, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, or just plain old cables to connect devices. But NTT, the Japanese communications company, has developed a technology called RedTacton, which it claims can send data over the surface of the skin...
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Palestine won the prize for the saddest photo in the BBC "Sadness and Joy" photography contest. The photo captured by the Palestinian TV producer Abdul-Rahman Al-Humran, shows three young girls weeping in sorrow for their brother, who was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the city of Rafah in Gaza, won the first place in the competition. [Via: AquaCool, PalestineBlogs, Rafah Pundits, IMEMC]...
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March 23, 2005
Yusuf Islam, previously British pop star Cat Stevens who embraced Islam 30 years ago, released a new record called "Indian Ocean" on Tueday, March 22, in aid of tsunami-orphaned children in the Indonesian province of Aceh. The "Indian Ocean" will be available as a download from several online music stores. The list of stores is available at yusufislam.org.uk. The song was recorded in London with Indian composer/producer A.R. Rahman, A-ha keyboard player Magne Furuholmen and Travis drummer Neil Primrose. Yusuf Islam’s own charity, Small Kindness, set up a regional office in Indonesia and will work on projects "to keep...
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"A window for you to look in, to see past the walls, barbed wire fences, and the media distortions; to hear from the people in Bethlehem themselves." Palestinians and internationals living in the Bethlehem region have started a weblog. They want to tell the world what it is like to be living in occupied territory, under an economic siege, encircled by a wall and military checkpoints... Bethlehem Bloggers » [Via: Je Blog, Palestine Blogs]...
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March 22, 2005
Just came across this quiz that asks which religion is the right one for you? After answering all the questions, I got this: You scored as Islam. Your beliefs are most similar to those of Islam. Do more research on Islam and possibly consider taking the shahadah and officially becoming a Muslim, if you aren't already. Despite the actions of some - who go against the teachings of Islam - Islam is a religion of peace; the word "islam" means "peace through submission to God." "Muslim" means "one who submits to God." Islam is the third of the three Abrahamic...
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Posted on March 22, 2005 06:17 PM under:
Tunisia
As I mentioned before, we spent the past weekend in the island of Djerba in the south of Tunisia. Anyway, even though this trip was meant as a break from our everyday life and the complicated life of the city, we found ourselves looking for an internet café to send some e-cards for Mother's day, blog, or whatever. To our amazement we didn't find one single internet café. Of course, I'm no local of the island, and I don't know every street and alley, but we did look around a lot in Houmt Souk, Midoun and the touristic area and...
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Tunisiana, the first private mobile operator in Tunisia, has launched a new web based service called "Ma Tunisiana" (My Tunisiana). Ma Tunisiana currently provides the following services online: - Sending, receiving and archiving SMS messages. - Checking your credit. - Checking how much you've spent up to the day before. - Changing your personal preferences on whether you would like to receive SMS ads and newsletters, or appear in the user directory. - And soon, checking your invoices and their details. I think this is great. Bravo to Tunisiana for this. Even though we in Tunisia are still a bit...
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So it turns out the rumours were true after all, Yahoo! has actually acquired Flickr. I wrote about this here, when the rumours first surfaced, and I basically thought it was bad news. Now after reading what the guys at Flickr have to say about it, I'm feeling a bit better about it all, but will still be watching how things go with some skepticism. I just wish the Flickr people continue to have the freedom they need to keep making Flickr an even greater service and that Yahoo! don't interfere too much and screw up the service....
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March 21, 2005
We just got back from Djerba after a great extended weekend spent there. Saturday morning, we packed everything we need, turned off our mobile phones, jumped into the car and started the 600Km drive to the island of Djerba in the south of Tunisia. It was a bit tiresome but worth it. We both needed some time off from our everyday life and a break from all the madness, so we thought that with the Independence day and Youth day offering us an extended weekend, we could get away from it all in Djerba. We basically relaxed at the...
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March 19, 2005
Men's Health posted an article about The 30 hottest things you can say to a naked woman, and defective yeti followed up with The 30 least hot follow-ups to the 30 hottest things you can say to a naked woman, lol. My faves are the following: - "Good morning Cheryl. I mean, um, Sharon." - "I'm ready to go again. Too much fiber, I guess." - "Damn, I've missed you. Hang on while I reload." - "I want to kiss/lick/touch every inch of you. Uh, I mean centimeter of you. I keep forgetting you are Canadian -- thank god." -...
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March 18, 2005
Jewish extremists are plotting to bring as much people as possible to occupy Al Haram Al Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) which the Jews call the 'Temple Mount'. David Ha'ivri, chairman of the Revava organisation planning the 10 April march, is hoping the mass ascent of 10,000 Jews to the compound will pressure the Israeli government to transfer full control of the compound from Muslim to Jewish hands. This is a very dangerous act and such an attack could spark more conflict and shatter the fragile truce that is in place now. I think the Israeli government should take it's responsabilities...
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Two days ago, members of the US Senate narrowly voted to support President Bush's quick solution to the energy crisis, i.e. opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska to oil drilling. ANWR covers 7.7 million hectares and is home to 45 types of land and marine mammals, including polar bears, muskoxen and pygmy shrews, as well as 160 species of migratory birds. Estimates of how much oil the refuge holds vary widely. By most accounts, the area would take 10 years to develop and still meet only a small fraction of U.S. energy needs. Even oil companies...
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March 17, 2005
Posted on March 17, 2005 05:16 PM under:
Music
I see trees of green, red roses too I see them bloom for me and you And I think to myself what a wonderful world. I see skies of blue and clouds of white The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night And I think to myself what a wonderful world. The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky Are also on the faces of people going by I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do They're really saying I love you. I hear babies crying, I watch them grow They'll learn much more than I'll...
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Yesterday One TV started airing a new reality tv show called "The Contender". The show follows 16 professional boxers in a training camp to pursue their dream of becoming a champion boxer. Silvester Stallone and Sugar Ray Leonard serve as both hosts and boxing mentors to this group of fighters as they each try to improve their skills in order rise to the rank of professional boxers. The boxers are divided into two teams, West Coast and East Coast, and they have a new challenge to do each week. The team that wins the challenge gets to pick a boxer...
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March 16, 2005
Yahoo! have just announced the beta of a new service called Yahoo! 360°. This service is Yahoo's step into the social networking and blogging arena. They promise it will be an easy way to keep connected to friends and family with blogs, photos and more. The service will enable users to blog, make lists (recommended books, music, movies, ...etc), add photo albums, rate and review local restaurants and businesses, share their LAUNCHcast music stations, show the groups they're members of, ...etc. I think this could turn out to be a pretty nice service for Yahoo! users, enabling them to put...
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Posted on March 16, 2005 09:47 AM under:
Cinema
Yesterday, I watched "Hero" featuring Jet Li and Ziyi Zhang. I heard a lot about this movie and have had it lying around in VCD format for a while now, but never got around to watching it till yesterday. It's a martial arts action fantasy, along the lines of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", about how one man defeated three assassins who sought to murder the most powerful warlord in pre-unified China. I really enjoy movies of this genre when they're done right, with a nice story, well choreographed fight sequences, cool cinematography and good acting. I hate the parts when...
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March 15, 2005
The other day while walking by some store windows, the question hit me: "When the hell did they start putting nipples on mannequins?!" Is it that the stores are really cold? Are the mannequins excited by the fact that people are staring at them? Are they implying that the clothes are made for chilly days only? Or maybe they're saying that whatever the weather, nipples will show through these clothes? I don't know who came up with the idea or why they thought it necessary to do so. It's not like you see that many women on the street with...
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I think this is really cool and practical... Customers of the German supermarket chain EDEKA in the southwest German town of Ruelzheim have been able to pay for their shopping by a fingerprint-pay-system for some time now. And the company plans to equip more of its stores across the region with this technology. According to Roland Fitterer, the store manager, customers need to register once with their identity card and bank details, then they can shop straight away. The scanner compares the shopper's fingerprint with those stored in its database along with account details. [More: Heise Online] I love cool...
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March 14, 2005
This morning, I had to go pay a fine for passing the due date to pay the road tax. Actually the fine wasn't for that, it was for being caught :P Anyway, it was a bureaucracy disaster. I had to go to an office of the Ministry of Finance in Sidi Bashir, one of the most crowded places in downtown Tunis. There they gave me a piece of paper and told me to go to "Rue d'Angleterre (England Road)" to pay the fine and then come back to them. On foot, that's like a quarter hour walk away, and in...
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Posted on March 14, 2005 10:56 AM under:
Cinema
Last night I watched "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow". Now, I have to say that I totally pre-judged this movie. I saw the trailer and I didn't like it, and I rented the movie sure that it would be a bad boring movie and a waste of money. The only reason I rented it is to see how bad Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie could get :P But, I have to admit it turned out better than I thought, not that much better, but still better. The movie takes another direction, visually speaking, than the rest...
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March 13, 2005
AOL have changed their Terms of service for AIM (AOL Instance Messenger), and the changes are pretty crazy and unbelievable: ... AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content. In addition, by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the...
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Sometime ago I found 43Things, a website where you can make a list of your goals and the stuff that you want to do in your life. Other than putting in your own list, you can also see what other people all around the world want to do. You can also find people who want to do the same stuff as you or who have already done it, who can tell you how it was like and give you advice. I think it's a really cool and fun idea. I've started putting in my list of stuff, which you can...
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March 12, 2005
Nothing surprises me anymore... A former U.S. Marine who participated in capturing ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said the public version of his capture was fabricated. "... we found him in a modest home in a small village and not in a hole as announced," Abou Rabeh said. "We captured him after fierce resistance during which a Marine of Sudanese origin was killed," he said. "Later on, a military production team fabricated the film of Saddam's capture in a hole, which was in fact a deserted well," Abou Rabeh said. [Read full article] [Via: Pourquoi Pas?, Je Blog]...
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March 11, 2005
It's the beginning of spring, my favourite season of the year. The weather is beautiful, the sky is clear and blue, the sun is shining, the breeze is nice and cool, the birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming and everything is just perfect. Oh and it's also my birthday ;) Yep, on a day like today, 26 years ago, I was born into this insane world. How does it feel being 26? To me, it's just the same as 25, 24, 23, ...etc. It's just a number really. How much we obsess about it is what makes the difference,...
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March 10, 2005
Posted on March 10, 2005 09:45 PM under:
Tunisia
Tonight, we felt like going to Halfaouine in Les Berges du Lac for some yummy Lablabi. Lablabi is a Tunisian fast food made up of bread crumbs, boiled chick peas, eggs, tuna, harissa (hot Tunisian chilli sauce), capers, cumin, olive oil and a little bit of garlic. It's a weird mix, but it's great :) If you ever visit Tunisia, make sure you try it out. The photo should give you an idea of how it looks. Yummy......
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Posted on March 10, 2005 08:46 AM under:
Tunisia
Each year, a jury headed by a Nobel Prize winner awards five female scientists -- one from each continent -- US$100,000 for their research in what are called the L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Awards. This year's awards coincide with the World Year of Physics and focus on material sciences. The winner for Africa is the Tunisian Zohra Ben Lakhdar, a professor at the University of Tunis, Tunisia, and member of the Islamic Academy of Sciences, was chosen for her work in infrared light spectroscopy and its applications in a wide range of fields, from astrophysics to agriculture. She has developed...
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Posted on March 10, 2005 08:17 AM under:
Tunisia
Thanks to Houssein, at last Tunisian blogs have an aggregator: Tunisie/Blogs. I've been thinking about this for a while and emailed Houssein with my thoughts a while after he started TN-Blogs, the Tunisian blog directory. It's great to see the mixture of our ideas come to life :) The blogs are mainly in French and English with occasional posts in Arabic. This, I think, is a really important and cool development for the Tunisian blogosphere. Do check it out: Tunisie/Blogs....
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March 09, 2005
Inspired by Roba, here are my confessions, the ones I can publish that is :P 1. I'm quite anti-social most of the time. I'd rather stay at home alone than go out and see people. 2. I got my driving license in Jordan from the first time, even though I nearly had an accident in the exam, by bribing the examiner. I gave a friend of mine 20JDs to take him out for a mansaf dinner and whatever else at Jabri :P But I am a really good driver, honestly. 3. I hate the French language. 4. I always say...
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March 08, 2005
An example of the effect video games can have on children... A 14-year-old schoolboy has been brutally killed in Latvia's north-eastern town of Valmiera by friends who say they were inspired by a video game, a spokeswoman for the police in Riga said Tuesday. They explained that "they used techniques borrowed from the video game 'Mortal Kombat' in dealing with their victim", the spokeswoman, Kristine Mezaraupa said. [Source: HTTabloid] This is mad... Anyway even though this could have been influenced by the Mortal Kombat video game, I don't think all the blame should be put on the video game manufacturer....
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Lately I've been playing around with a new tool called PerfectJournal which is, as it's name suggests, a journal software. It's quite a nice tool to capture and store notes, thoughts, plans, ideas, todos, research and diaries in a clean and organized way using folders and keywords. A cool feature that could come in very handy is the ability to directly publish entries onto Blogger, as well as export journal entries to RSS format or to Word. I also like the ability to rate entries, which works great for me with stuff I write or with ideas as I like...
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After yesterday's demonstrations by Kuwaiti women demanding equal voting rights, also called by some "The Blue Revolution" because of the blue "Women's Rights Now" posters they were carrying, Kuwait's Cabinet is speeding up a parliamentary debate on an amendment it proposed to the state's election law, which aims to give women the right to vote and stand as political candidates. Debate on women being able to vote here gained momentum last month after the prime minister, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, wrote in a rare newspaper column that it was "high time women get this right and practice it"...
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March 07, 2005
Nurhan just sent me a link to this extremely disturbing VW Polo Ad. The ad features a Palestinian suicide bomber, wearing a kafiyyeh scarf, who gets into a Polo, drives to a café full of smiling peaceful people (babies included) and then blows himself up in the car, but as the car is strong and tough, the explosion is contained inside the car and nothing happens to the people outside. And then the slogan appears: "Polo. Small But Tough." I think doing something like this is totally racist, wrong and immoral. I couldn't believe that a global company like VW...
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Posted on March 7, 2005 07:52 AM under:
Cinema
Last night I finally got to watch "Shark Tale", a Dreamworks animation about a fish called Oscar who wants to become a somebody and who claims he is a shark slayer to get there. This turned out better than I expected. And I have to say Dreamworks Animation are getting better and better at this. A bunch of great actors did the voices for the characters: Will Smith, Jack Black, Renée Zellwegger, Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorcese ...etc. It was a really nice movie, fun to watch and funny at times. I liked Lenny, the vegetarian Shark voiced...
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