Category: Interesting

How much has car safety come in 50 years? Autoblog has pictures and a video of a crash test between two cars, one a 1959 model and the other from 2009. The result? We’ve come a long way. [Link]

Update: Link fixed!

Sydney got hit by a dust storm and it’s all over the news so I checked out the pictures and it just looks like one of the regular storms that hits Kuwait. Not a big deal but I guess they just never got one before. [Pictures]

I’ve always wanted Craigslist to open a Kuwait section and it looks like they just did. Check kuwait.craigslist.org, they’ve even kept the erotic section which should be interesting!

Slider Station is one of my favorite burger places in Kuwait. They’ve got a huge variety of sliders, burgers, starters, fries and desserts while also having one of the trendiest designed restaurant interiors in Kuwait as well as good music and some amazing staff. My favorite two things there are the onion strings with Chipotle sauce on the side and Ancho rib slider.

Their Black Widow burger was reviewed by me in “The Best Burger in Kuwait Challenge” and scored very high. A lot of people were put off by the price but now could be a good way to try it because Slider Station are offering lunch or dinner for two as today’s giveaway. You get to order and try whatever you like which is a fantastic deal so make sure you try their famous chocolate pudding when you are done. They’re located on the Gulf Road opposite Seef Palace near Pink Moon and Falafel & Company. You can visit their website by clicking this [Link]

All you need to do to win is to leave a comment below and later on in the evening I will use random.org to select a winner.

Rules: You need to put your proper email in the email field while commenting since the winner will be contacted by email. You also need to respond to my “You Won” email within 24 hours or I will have to make another draw and choose another winner. You can only comment once, anyone caught commenting more than once will get disqualified.

Picture of staff taken by Dakdoka

Update: The post was closed for commenting at around 6PM.
The winner is…

[YouTube]

Comment #156, you’ve got mail!
Everyone else check back tomorrow for another giveaway.

I was reading an article in WIRED magazine about Patrick Blanc and his famous vertical wall gardens when I read the following:

Forty-five years on, the French botanist’s gardens have grown massive in scale. One inside a Portuguese shopping mall is larger than four tennis courts, and there’s one in Kuwait that’s almost as big. [Source]

So I did a bit of googling and found this article from January of this year that says:

360 MALL announced the latest addition to its unique retail offer, with the creation of the world’s largest indoor living wall. This innovative vertical garden marks a new eco-friendly element to the 360 Mall on offer…

…Patric Blanc, a botanist and the inventor of the Vertical Garden said: “This vertical garden is set to become a must-see destination for people in Kuwait and beyond. It is something people will want to see and experience for themselves. [Source]

I’ve been to 360 Mall a few times and never noticed the vertical garden so I checked for some images of the mall online and found the picture above on Ansam’s blog showing the vertical garden. I don’t think a lot of people have noticed it before, maybe they should add a plaque or something in front of it. It’s interesting.

Here is a link to Patrick Blanc’s website. [Link]

Yesterday night I passed by Abyat to check up on something and on my way out I decided to pass by this new place that had opened right in front of it called Aquamondo. It’s a cute place that has everything you need for your bathroom ranging from shower curtains and floor mats to shower heads and bathtubs. They even have a small area with a few shower heads setup where you can turn them on and see how the water flows out of them.

Abyat does have a bigger collection of shower heads and tubs but its still neat.

The other day I posted about the new bollards (poles) that were being installed in the area around my office in Kuwait City. They really didn’t fit in with their environment and it looked like a lot of money was wasted on them. Well one of my blog readers just made me realize that they’re not there anymore. I saw some guys working on them this morning when I was coming in to work and figured they were just properly fixing them but it seems they were removing them. Strange, just like that they’re gone, not a single one left behind. Hmmmm…

I was lucky enough to get a private tour around the new Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel today and I have to say I loved the place. When you pass by it on the highway it looks like one giant building but once you’re inside its a completely different world. I really left the place impressed and I managed to take some pictures to share with everyone here. My favorite thing has to be the fact that they have a lot of Islamic design incorporated very beautifully into the design which you can see in some of the pictures below. The beach is a lot bigger than it used to be and they’ve built a very nice marina, not for boats but for swimmers which I think is cool. The place will have around 400 hotel rooms, 60 apartments and 12 private chalets. They’ll also have three pools outside, 2 large ones and 1 small one for kids. They’ll also have an indoor pool. Click continue below for all the pictures I took. Completion date is set for May 2010.

Teddy On The Go is an interesting social experiment by a Kuwaiti architecture student that recently moved back to Kuwait. To keep herself in check and out of a routine she decided to start the website Teddy on the Go as a way to motivate her into doing something interesting or new everyday and also as a way of expressing her opinions subtly through the bear. Her project is going to last for 365 days only after which the bear will be sold for charity. Currently she is at day 11. Check out her experiment by visiting her website www.yearofteddy.com

I always thought they built the crane from down to up. [YouTube]

YouTube Description: Two awesome Americans in Kuwait give one lucky TCN a taste of the good life for one night… Will this spark a trend of kindness?

Basically two guys find someone who needs help, they then take him shopping, buy him stuff, take him out to dinner and then give him KD100 cash at the end. I think its a pretty cool idea especially if it catches on and random people start doing it. [YouTube]

Note: TCN stands for Third Country National

Thanks Nate

Kuwait for Kenya is a LoYAC initiative made up of young Kuwaiti volunteers focusing on the overall youth development in Kenya. This year, Genan Dashti, Amna Hussein, Dala AlFuwaires, Sara AlDirbas, Faisal AlShawa, Willy Mathew, and Dari AlHuwail traveled to Mombasa and were able to achieve the following:

Child Development Center (CDC):
Installing and fitting a new kitchen and dining hall

Mombasa Youth Counseling Center (MYCC):
Upgrading the HIV laboratory and VCT center

Goodwill Academy:
Providing student’s desks and chairs

The above video is a summary of this years trip to Kenya. Their website which is still under construction is located [Here]. You can also find them on Facebook by clicking [Here]

I think its really great what they did and I hope they get all the support they need for future trips.

Someone emailed me this liquor permit dating back to 1964 when alcohol was still legal in Kuwait. This permit was set to expire on August 31st 1965 but alcohol ended up getting banned completely at the end of 1964. Here is the full version of the image above. [Picture]

If you’ve missed my previous post from TIME magazine dating back to 1965 talking about how alcohol was banned in Kuwait click [Here]

Thanks Alban

Update: The permit was scanned and posted originally by Rwatan.

According to a report by nef (the new economics foundation), a UK-based independent think tank and research group, Kuwait ranked 128th on the Happy Planet Index out of 143 countries researched. The happiest country in the world is Costa Rica (surprisingly not Netherlands) while Saudi Arabia ranked 13th (?????) and Lebanon ranked 110.

Here is the link to the full list. [Image]
Here is a link to the full report. [PDF]

4,475 Lebanese participated in breaking the Guinness world record for the longest Dabke line. They weren’t as synchronized as the 1,500 Filipino prisoners dancing to Thriller but they looked like they had a lot of fun. Ironically, this record was broken in Montreal and not in Lebanon. [YouTube]