2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003Me and Nat are up now watching Michael Jacksons four SUV’s convoy head towards the courthouse. The jury has reached a verdict and they will be reading it as soon as Michael arrives. Watching the convoy heading towards the courthouse reminded me a lot of when I watched OJ Simpsons chase on TV back in Canada. I love this live stuff and I hope he turns out not guilty.
Update: Michael is NOT guilty of any of the 10 counts.
Dortmund, one of 12 host cities for the 2006 World Cup, is hurriedly building wooden sex huts with the aim of encouraging discretion among prostitutes and their clients. According to Reuters, “experts estimate as many as 40,000 prostitutes may travel to Germany to offer their services to fans during the tournament.” To make them comfortable, “Dortmund plans to arrange the Dutch-designed huts … in an area with condom machines and snack bar.” Like a highway rest stop, but cooler. “We don’t want a situation where prostitutes and their clients disturb residential areas,” says an official. [Link]
KUWAIT CITY—In light of the country’s recent decision to allow women to vote and hold public office, observers around the world have noted that Kuwait appears to have discovered the fairer sex. “The boys in Kuwait are really taking notice of how much the girls have changed over the country’s long political winter,” said Fouad Ajami, an expert in Arab affairs. “They’re no longer shyly avoiding women they’re not related to or clumsily shooting them for not wearing veils in public.” Ajami added that he was not entirely surprised by Kuwait’s discovery, given its long history of teasing women, calling them names, and stoning them to death for being unclean.
[via]
It’s official… [Link]
A former Nazi graphic designer is suing Volkswagen, seeking credit for helping to design their famous logo. Nikolai Borg, 86, who now lives in Austria, says he has paperwork that can prove his involvement in the development of the VW logo 65 years ago. He doesn’t want any cash, says his lawyer—he just wants to live to see his work acknowledged. Volkswagen denies that Borg was involved in the design. The legal case begins next week in a Vienna court. [Link]
Autoblog just posted pictures of the new Porsche Cayman. The Cayman will have a 3.4-liter boxer engine which will deliver 295 horsepower and will be able to hit 0-100 in just 5.1 seconds. The Cayman will go on sale next January. Click here for more pictures.
This is going to be the coolest thing! iRobot, the makers of Rooma the robot vacuum cleaner are coming out with the Scooba. The scooba is a Robotic Floor Washer and its exactly what I need for my hardwood floors. The scooba works by first vacuuming up the flotsam and jetsam, then applying a liquid cleaner, and following up by drying the floor. Its coming out in the fall so it will be on my Christmas wishlist.. Videos and more info here. Here is a picture of my roomba in action.
Husband forces wife at gun point
A Kuwaiti woman recently filed a complaint with the Farwaniya Police Station accusing her husband – who was armed with a gun – of forcing her to sign on a promissory note for KD 15,000, reports Al-Anba daily. The husband admitted to the charge saying she owes him the money. In a similar incident, an Egyptian man filed a similar case with the same police accusing a compatriot of forcing him to sign a promissory note for KD 1,000 under threat of using firearm. Meanwhile, a Kuwaiti woman recently filed a complaint with the Jahra police accusing her ex-husband of kidnapping their children, reports Al-Rai Al-Aam daily.
Wife assaulted: A female Kuwait University student, recently filed a complaint with the Salwa Police Station accusing her husband, an employee of Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC), of assaulting her. The wife has submitted two medical reports to substantiate her claim, reports Al-Rai Al-Aam daily.
3 Filipinos robbed
Police are looking for five unidentified persons for robbing three Filipinos in Jabriya, reports Al-Rai Al-Aam daily. In their complaint to police, the victims said the men broke into their apartment, beat them and escaped with KD 600, gold worth KD 1,500, and cellphones.
Time to upgrade… [Link]
update: done, I am now 1.5.1
I was just catching up on some news on the Arab Times website when I came upon this article about a Jordanian man who had sex with a Kuwaiti girl. The guy was given 15 years in jail followed by deportation. The thing is though from what I read in the article is that she consented to the sex. She just didn’t want him to lose her virginity (ie. she wanted it from the back) but when he did lose her virginity she went and reported him to the police. According to her he sweet talked her into having sex with him although she didn’t want to. Come on, thats total bullshit.
He then asked her to close her eyes saying he has a surprise for her. He then talked to her in a soothing way which made her unable to resist him. He asked her to have sex and the woman is said to have requested him not to ‘damage’ her hymen. However, the man failed to keep his word as she found herself bleeding.
[article]
Prince Naseem the boxing champ crashed his Mercedes SLR yesterday while trying to overtake a couple of cars on a tight road. He was later arrested at his home because he had fled after the accident. What interests me in this story is that Naseem was speeding in his car. I hate it when people buy fast cars and drive them slow so its cool that Naseem drives his car the way its supposed to be driven. But, as you can seen in the picture he totally smashed his KD170,000 SLR. Hmmm maybe he will get the Carrera GT next? [via]
I overheard my sister and mum talk about this wanting to know what happened. Well surprisingly CNN has an article on why Hisham Abdel Rahman the guy who won Star Acadamy this year got detained in Saudi. Turns out all he did was greet some fans who had spotted him at a shopping mall and the religous police didn’t think they way he greeted them was appropriate and so asked him to leave the mall. When he refused they arrested him. [Link]
Ok, this might be nearly as big as yesterdays Adobe and Macromedia merger, GameStop Corp. and Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp. have announced a merger agreement. The new company will be known as GameStop Corp. and pretty much holds a monopoly on video game retail. Over 3,200 stores. About $3.8 billion in annual revenue. [Link]
Like Nibaq just posted, Adobe just acquired Macromedia. What does this mean to us? Well first lets see what major software both companies have.
Adobe
Acrobat, Photoshop, Elements, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive, Premier, After Effects
Macromedia
Flash, Dreamweaver, FreeHand, Director, Fireworks
The biggest and most controversial problem is Illustrator and Freehand. Both softwares are currently being used although in the past few years FreeHand has lost a considerable share of the market, they still have a cult following. But, between Illustrator and Freehand, there is no question, Freehand will die. Its been dying slowly anyway but I am sure the fans will cry murder. Fireworks which conflicts with Photoshop and Elements will also die out, Photoshop has a much larger market share and a much stronger brand. GoLive and Dreamweaver, GoLive is out for sure. Adobe has been trying to play catchup with Dreamweaver for a very long time and this way they can just trash GoLive and pickup the much more popular Dreamweaver. Director will be a very nice addition to the Adobe Suite and I hope they manage to integrate it nicely with the other Adobe software, which I am sure they will. Finally owning both Flash and Acrobat I think is a very strong package, PDF is used a lot in the print world while Flash is used alot in the digital one. Owning both means that they will have a very strong position in both medias. All they need now is to buyout Quark and we will have another Microsoft-like company to deal with.
Finally CNN.com can get back to posting interesting news on their main page. Terri Schiavo died earlier today nearly two weeks after doctors removed her feeding tube. Nat is pissed, she thinks it would have been better if the doctors injected her with a lethal injection or something instead of starving her to death. I think that has to be the most hillarious solution to the issue. But seriously now, can we get back to the real news.