Month: June 2006

Google News in Arabic

Google have finally rolled out an Arabic version of Google News. I checked the list of languages the service is available in this morning, as I always do when reading the news there, and found it was added.

The Arabic version pulls articles from 150 Arabic news sources, which is relatively very good, even though it’s a humble number compared to the 4500 sources for the English version.

I think it’s great to see Google’s evident push into Arabic recently with it launching an Arabic version of Gmail, English-Arabic / Arabic-English translation and now Google News.

I read a lot of my news from Google News, and now with this version, I’ll be able to keep up with what’s being written in Arabic news sources.

Hopefully more and more services will follow from Google and others, helping to give Arabic web presence a push.

links for 2006-06-12

Eating Pizza Cuts Cancer Risk

Good news for pizza lovers like me…

Italian researchers say eating pizza could protect against cancer. They claim eating pizza regularly reduced the risk of developing oesophageal cancer by 59%.

The risk of developing colon cancer also fell by 26% and mouth cancer by 34%, they claimed.

The secret could be lycopene, an antioxidant chemical in tomatoes, which is thought to offer some protection against cancer, and which gives the fruit its traditional red colour.

[Source: BBC News]

On the other hand Pizza can be high in saturated fat, salt and calories which would most probably result in an “outstanding” physique and a sudden “surprise” heart attack.

So if the chemical exists in tomatoes, I guess we should just eat tomatoes, instead of making up extra excuses to have a hot, delicious, stuffed crust, melting cheese, yummy pizza.

I’ll be in the pizza place next door, follow me 😛

Al Zarqawi Character Killed Off

The news everywhere today is about the killing of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi through a joint US-Jordanian operation last night.

Good riddance, of course. This guy was responsible for many innocent deaths in Iraq and elsewhere, and it’s only fair and good to the world for him to go like this.

This doesn’t mean the terrorism and attacks will come to an end anytime soon, but well, it’s one mad leader less to worry about.

But still, I don’t know why all this sometimes feels like one big soap opera, I’m sure the conspiracy theorists will agree. It’s as if all these names are characters in a very long series.

Bin Laden was the lead character for a while, but then things didn’t go that well between him and the producers of the soap, they fired him but he kept coming to the studio, so the director gave him a secondary role with guest appearances.
Al Zawahiri tried to take the lead role, but was cursed with a sticky sidekick role, and remained a secondary character throughout it all.

Al Zarqawi came out as a favorite and won the lead role, but then he started experimenting with the character, and artistic differences occurred between him and the director, so they chose to kill off his character.
I wonder who’ll be the replacement in the next season of the soap.

I know this is not an issue to joke about, and I’m not really joking, it’s just a reflection of the conspiracy theory I’ve heard a lot of people think aloud about.

A lot of people think these characters are just actors in a big play. Sometimes I think they’re just overdoing it, and sometimes I start to think “what if…?”

The Real World Cup Rules

Please forward this to your girlfriends, wifes, etc. 😉

1. From 9 June to 9 July 2006, you should read the sports section of the newspaper so that you are aware of what is going on regarding the World Cup, and that way you will be able to join in the conversations. If you fail to do this, then you will be looked at in a bad way, or you will be totally ignored. DO NOT complain about not receiving any attention.

2. During the World Cup, the television is mine, at all times, without any exceptions. If you even take a glimpse of the remote control, you will lose it (your eye).

3. If you have to pass by in front of the TV during a game, I don’t mind, as long as you do it crawling on the floor and without distracting me. If you decide to stand nude in front of the TV, make sure you put clothes on right after because if you catch a cold, I wont have time to take you to the doctor or look after you during the World Cup month.

4. During the games I will be blind, deaf and mute, unless I require a refill of my drink or something to eat. You are out of your mind if you expect me to listen to you, open the door, answer the telephone, or pick up the baby that just fell from the second floor….it wont happen.

5. It would be a good idea for you to keep at least 2 six packs in the fridge at all times, as well as plenty of things to nibble on, and please do not make any funny faces to my friends when they come over to watch the games. In return, you will be allowed to use the TV between 12am and 6am, unless they replay a good game that I missed during the day.

Continue reading The Real World Cup Rules

9 Things I Hate About Everyone

I’m not usually into forwards, but well sometimes you find something cool here or there in one of them. This is a funny list from a forward I got from my friend Orange today (Thanks Orange), and I thought I would share.

9 Things I Hate About Everyone

1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time…. I know where my watch is pal, where the hell is yours? Do I point at my crotch when I ask where the toilet is?

2. People who are willing to get off their ass to search the entire room for the T.V. remote because they refuse to walk to the T.V. and change the channel manually.

3. When people say “Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too”. Damn right! What good is cake if you can’t eat it?

4. When people say “it’s always the last place you look”. Of course it is. Why the hell would you keep looking after you’ve found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they? Gonna Kick their asses!

5. When people say while watching a film “did you see that?”. No Loser, I paid $12 to come to the cinema and stare at the damn floor.

6. People who ask “Can I ask you a question?”…. Didn’t really give me a choice there, did ya sunshine?

7. When something is ‘new and improved!’. Which is it? If it’s new, then there has never been anything before it. If it’s an improvement, then there must have been something before it, couldn’t be new.

8. When people say “life is short”. What the hell?? Life is the longest damn thing anyone ever does!! What can you do that’s longer?

9. When you are waiting for the bus and someone asks “Has the bus come yet?”. If the bus came would I be standing here, dumbass?

Al-Quraysh: The Muslim Strategy Video Game

“Al-Quraysh” is a strategy game developed by Damascus based Afkar Media, that tells the story of the first 100 years of Islam’s history from the viewpoint of four different nations – Bedouins, Arabs, Persians, and Romans.

One can choose to command any of the armies of the four nations or lead the army of the main character, Khaled Ibn Waleed, a Muslim warrior who defeated the Roman and Persian empires and never lost a battle. Or one can play the role of the Bedouin sheikh, who must earn the respect of his tribe. The player has the task of building and protecting trade routes and water sources, building armies, conducting battles, and freeing slaves.

The makers hope “Al-Quraysh,” named after the prophet Muhammad’s tribe, will help to correct the image of Islam, alleviate tensions with the West, and stoke pride among young Muslims.

Afkar Media has already produced two games, both dealing with the plight of the Palestinian people. One game released last year, “Under Siege,” was born out of frustration with the prevalance of Arabs and Muslims portrayed as terrorists in Western video games. The creators of the game say the story line counteracts the biases in some Western games by showing the Palestinian struggle from an Arab vantage point and creating Arab and Muslim characters who are fighting in self-defense.

I haven’t had the chance to check out or play any of the AfkarMedia games, although I truly wish I get to, but I think it’s great that they’re out there and doing all this amazing work.
I also like their choice of subjects and the messages they’re trying to get across through their games.

[Via: The Black Iris]
[Source: Yahoo! News]

Google Spreadsheets

In what can only be described as another act of war against Microsoft, Google is now beta testing a new online application called Google Spreadsheets.
And yes you guessed right, it’ll be going head to head against Microsoft’s Excel.

Google Spreadsheets will be able to do all the basic stuff you got used to doing with Excel in a simpler way through a familiar desktop-like interface.

Import and export of your spreadsheets is possible. And with your spreadsheets also being saved online, you can access and work on them from anywhere you wish.

Google Spreadsheets also adds a layer of web sharing and cooperation on top of what Excel can do, allowing you to invite the people you want to work on the spreadsheet with and edit it with them in real time.

It’s still in limited beta, but the screenshots looks promising.

Google Spreadsheets

What should we expect next from Google? A presentation web application PowerPoint killer?

Subscriber Only World Cup

There’s been a lot of buzz these past days in the Arab blogosphere about the World Cup matches and the exclusive rights agreement that ART has with FIFA to air the World Cup in the Middle East.

This deal means that the only way for Arabs to get to watch the World Cup is to subscribe to ART, something which isn’t within the reach of everyone, or if they have a dish installed, hope that some satellite channel will be airing the matches, which is not such a sure bet.

Local, terrestrial, TV stations in Arab countries will only get a 20 minute ‘Match Highlights’ package, that they can only air one to two hours after the match.

A lot of people have lashed out against ART and its founder Sheikh Saleh Kamel because of this, blaming him for this and pouring out their hate on him.
What’s worse is that the ART holds the rights to airing the World Cup up to 2014.

I too think that this is very bad and unacceptable, but I think that the blame and hate shouldn’t be thrown on ART and its founder. After all, the guy is just a business man who ceased an opportunity he found available, just like anyone else would. Believe me, if it wasn’t ART, it would have been someone else.

The real blame should be thrown on the over greedy, money thirsty FIFA!
It’s not enough they’ll be raking in millions and millions in sponsorship deals, ticket sales and what not; No they also have to sell airing rights to the matches for millions of dollars, bringing about all the negative effects we’re witnessing now.
Of course, a business man paying all that money for airing rights will want to see some return on his investment, and the only way he can do that is by reselling some of the rights and selling subscriptions.

But this is the World Cup we’re talking about, the most important and biggest sporting event in existence. It belongs to the World, not to FIFA!
What is FIFA but an organization created to oversee the worldwide game, centralize its rules and promote it.
When did it become a greedy business running after every penny in our pockets?
This is complete nonsense and totally unacceptable.
Give us back our football!
Down with FIFA!