Ever wondered how much influence Arabic words have in the English language? [Link]
Category: Interesting
Arabic words in English
What does “OK” stand for?
Interesting, it never occurred to me that it stood for something.. [Link]
Graphing Kuwait Blogs
I just used Alexaholic to graph and compare traffic with my site and other Kuwait bloggers and I found the results interesting. It seems most of the time our traffic dips and peaks together. The Kuwaiti blogging community in a way is connected together which makes sense if you think about it. We all for example got more traffic when the Amir passed away since everyone abroad wanted to find out what was happening in Kuwait. We probably also got a dip in traffic during the vacation when many Kuwaiti students studying in the US came back to Kuwait and stopped checking the blogs. You can check out the chart and see what I am talking about by clicking the link below. You could also plug in your own blogs and check and compare. [Link]
Google Launches Google Mars
Activities in Kuwait Tidbits
I found some cool info in Kuwait Explorer I didn’t know about, here are some interesting stuff I found:
– Single round of golf at Ahmadi course is KD5, annual membership is KD175
– Horse riding lessons at equestrian club costs KD3 per half hour
– Kuwait Darts & Social Leage [Link]
– If I had time I would do some Kung Fu [Link]
So far I really am liking the book Kuwait Explorer.
I found this link on Digg today morning. Its the funniest Steve Jobs keynote I have watched. In it he announced his new partnership with Microsoft and then goes and tells everyone how Internet Explorer was going to be the default browser on the Mac. What I found funny is the Apple crowd, everyone was like booing and screaming out “Noooo!!”, I can only imagine how fucked up the experience must have been to them back then. [Link]
Japanoid
Japanoid. definition: Extremely compact cars from Japan.
I had never seen 80% of these Japanoid cars before and some like the Nissan Figaro pictured above look really cool and funky. [Link]
Update: seems the official name for these kind of cars is “Keicar”. Keicar is a Japanese category of small automobiles, including passenger cars and also vans and pick-up trucks for commercial use. They are mainly designed for sale in Japan, because there are some tax and insurance relaxations and an exemption from the usual requirement of certification of park space that one has adequate parking space at his or her home or has contract for a parking spot.
These relatively relaxed standards came from the post-World War II days when most Japanese were too poor to buy a full sized car, yet had more than enough money to buy a motorcycle. To promote the growth of car industry as well as to offer an alternative delivery method to small business and shop owners, Keicar standards were created.
More information here. [Link]
Kuwait Sky Tours
Susan, a regular reader of the site recently went on a sky tour of Kuwait and this is what she had to say about it:
A recent start-up called Kuwait Sky Tours is now operating in Kuwait and taking passengers on 15-minute helicopter rides at a cost of KD25 each. The 15-minute flight takes off from the helipad behind the Sultan Centre restaurant on the Gulf Road, travels up to Green Island and then back down to the Amir’s Palace in Salwa, before returning to land. It is a great way too see Kuwait from a different perspective. The helicopter is a MD 500-E and seats 3 adults. There is space for a child or a very skinny person between the pilot and front passenger. If you want to go, give Steve a call on 705 6666. They also fly from Khiran and Failaka on occasion. Cameras are allowed.
You can also go on a larger helicopter, for an hour-long flight for the princely sum of USD1,500. Or, try the executive jet, which is ready to fly you and 13 of your friends to any destination in the world! Don’t know that price; I was too afraid to ask!
P.S. Don’t talk into the headset during the flight. The pilot told me off!
Here are Susan’s pictures from her trip:
The Helicopter
Looking North West
Marina Mall and Marina Hotel
The Scientific Center
View of Salmiya
The Gulf Road and Kuwait Towers
House in Salwa
Radisson SAS
Top Digital Cameras
My mum was a flight attendant on Kuwait Airways during the 70’s and she always talks about how great the experience was and how she got to travel to so many places and meet a lot of new people. Two months ago while I was in Lebanon I found a stash of old photos she had taken during that time and I found the pictures really interesting since I love photos from the 70’s and 80’s that deal with Kuwait.
[Click here to view the pictures]
Note: The last two pictures were taken on board the Amir’s plane (Amir Sabah al-Salim Al Sabah) which she served on the last period of her career.
Note 2: If anyone has a bunch of “colored” photos dealing with Kuwait which were taken during the 70’s and 80’s send me them and I will post them online.
Note 3: The uniforms were designed by Dior.
Mac Links & One More Thing
Saab Vs Campaign
I don’t know why I had never seen these before but I just found a page with an old Saab campaign from the 90’s called Saab Vs. Its a really beautiful campaign but my favorite has to the be the one above, Saab Vs Russian Roulette. [Link]
VideoSift
iPod Diagnostic Mode
How to quickly find out if your iPod has a hardware problem. [Link]