2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Have you guys noticed how much information your phone knows about you? Back in January while using google maps on my phone to get to my hotel I noticed something weird. Under the hotel name on google maps was my check in and check out date. I was like WTF? How did it know? I then realized that google must have read my booking information when I got it in my gmail inbox and then shared that information with google maps. Impressive.

But now things are starting to get creepy. I’m currently vacation in the States and earlier today I was in Versailles, Kentucky when I got a notification on my phone telling me I should leave and head to my next city if I wanted to check into my hotel on time. I didn’t add anything to my calendar nor did I add a reminder so I figured my iPhone is now also reading my emails and setting up my calendar for me. Not only that but it also reminded me 3 hours before check in and my trip to my next destination was going to take 3 hours by car exactly. Crazy shit.

Later in the day I was telling my friend about it and she asked me what time my flight was tomorrow. I told her 5:30 but I’m not sure and as a joke I was like let me ask Siri. So I ask Siri what time my flight was the next day and she replies telling me 7:27. I was like whaaaaatt… So I open my airline app and check and she was right, my flight was at 7:27.

It’s all pretty creepy the way my phone and google read my emails now but I also kinda like it. It’s the good kind of creepy I guess.

Last week the website Open Signal published an article on the state of LTE around the world. With the article they shared some date including LTE coverage around the world and LTE speeds around the world. When it came to coverage Kuwait was right on top of the list tied in 3rd place with Hong Kong. The only other countries ahead were South Korea and Japan. On the other hand when it came to LTE speeds, Kuwait’s speed landed at the other end of the list with an average download speed of 7Mbps placing it in 63rd place out of 68 countries. The only countries that performed worst were Bolivia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Costa Rica and Iran.

Now the more interesting information is the breakdown of the local operators by Open Signal. The operator with the most local coverage was Zain with 87%, Viva with 85% and Ooredoo with 84%. When it came to download speeds, Ooredoo averaged the fastest with 8Mbps, Zain with 7Mbps and Viva with 6Mbps.

Check out the full world wide results by clicking [Here]

The Global Innovation Index (GII) for 2015 was released last week and Kuwait surprisingly (at least to me) ranked last compared to neighboring GCC states. The GII ranked the innovative performance of 141 countries and economies around the world, based on 79 indicators and Kuwait ended up coming in 77th place in the rankings.

43 – Saudi Arabia
47 – United Arab Emirates
50 – Qatar
59 – Bahrain
69 – Oman
77 – Kuwait

I downloaded the full report to better understand why Kuwait came last in the GCC and so low worldwide and found a few positives and negatives which I’ve highlighted below.

Positives:
Electricity output, kWh/cap (Rank 1)
Pupil-teacher ratio, secondary (Rank 8)
Ease of paying taxes (Rank 11)

Negatives:
Business sophistication (Rank 132)
Knowledge absorption (Rank 130)
Cost of redundancy dismissal, salary week (Rank 124)
Ease of starting a business (Rank 120)

Check out the full report on the GII website [Here]

Thanks Musaed

Kuwait Baseball Softball & Challenger League (KBSCL) previously known as Kuwait Little Leagues (KLL) won the Best Leisure Activity in Kuwait for children a few months back on the blog. They’re a non-profit organization that provides their players with 6 months of physical activity and competition twice a week for a minimal fee which includes season fees, jersey, hat and year end award.

Registration for 2015-2016 season is now open for boys and girls ages 4 to 17. They have their regular baseball divisions, girls’ softball and our challenger division for players with physical and/or developmental disabilities.

Their baseball fields are located off the 6th Ring Road and legit. If you’re interested to find out more or to register for their 2015-2016 season then click [Here]

As you’ll notice I’ve updated the look of the blog slightly. There are two reasons for this, the first being I needed to clearly define the blog’s logo so I’ve removed the sub-headline “The A-Sides” from the header. The second reason I changed things is because I think the previous header was eating up too much screen space.

Another change I’ve done to the blog is that I’ve now unified all the sections looks wise. Not sure why I had every section a different color before but that’s no longer the case. Overall I’m nearly done with the facelift except for the “Community” section which I still need to do and I also messed up the “Classifieds” section and now it’s looking a bit wonky (Andy I’m gonna need your help!). Other than that if you spot anything looking weird just let me know.

“Friday Gathering Project“ is an in-depth exploration of the living conditions of low-income migrant workers in their humble accommodations in Kuwait, bordering on high-end neighborhoods and landmark architecture. These workers are living on the margins of society though they play a key role in shaping and maintaining its physical environment.

I love Faisal’s work, check out the photos from this project on his website [Here]

Thanks kutsuit

Daaaaaammmmmmn. [YouTube]

via Sala6a

This is hilarious, the voice acting is just so over the top. [YouTube]

via the blog DrQ80

Yesterday I posted about how Harry Pottery is now banned in Kuwait and awhile ago a reader emailed me the Ministry of Education’s guidelines for books to be excluded from schools. Check out the list below:

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Ministry of Private Education Guidelines

In accordance with the Ministry of Education’s guidelines, please find below a detailed list of the types of books and/or materials to be excluded from the School’s teaching materials and subjects.

This includes but is not limited to classroom libraries, Library collection, textbooks & Scholastic orders.

I. Books with a Religious Domain that:
1. Personify God, messengers, prophets, angles and companions of the messengers
2. Distort the messengers, their families, disciples, and traditions
3. Allege religious mistreatment between Jews, Muslims and Christians
4. Assert religion as an instigator of aggression, terrorism, activism or invasion
5. Show places of worship in an inappropriate way
6. Claim Mohammed as the “founder” of Islam
7. Describe the immigration to Mecca as, “flight” or “escape”
8. Claim Mohammed was the author of the Quran, or calling the Quran the “teachings of Mohammed”
9. Claim that Islam and other religions were spread by force
10. Offend Islamic and other religions’ traditions, the companions, scholars, and laws and legislators
11. Adopt missionary connotations when talking about religions
12. Teach Darwin’s theory of evolution or the “Origins of Species”
13. Exaggerate the differences between religious sects in Islam and other religions
14. Spread information about witchcraft, reincarnation and the transmigration of souls
15. Rephrase the Quran or other religious books by adding verses and/or chapters to it

II. Books with a Political Domain:
1. View the Arab Israeli conflict with bias and/or sympathy towards Israel
2. Focus on Jewish persecution, during the holocaust, excluding the oppression of other races’ by Hitler
3. Falsify and misinterpret the history of Arab countries
4. Denounce the policy of the State of Kuwait and its sovereignty and attack the GCC and Arab states
5. Rename the Arabian Gulf, the Persian Gulf
6. Claim the islands in the Arabian Gulf as Iranian territory
7. Claim Iran has sovereignty over the Kingdom of Bahrain
8. Distort Arab and Muslim history
9. Claim that the Crusades were caused by religious persecution of Muslims and/or Christians
10. Misinterpret Kuwait’s relation with Arab and other countries

III. Books with a Cultural Domain:
1. Show naked or immoral pictures or photos
2. Contradict Islamic law
3. View marriage as solely a sexual relationship instead of a holy union
4. Condone the eating of pigs
5. Condone the consumption of liquor, alcohol, and drugs
6. Divide or split the social unity of society

One thing I tend to do before I travel is get travel insurance. I think I’m already covered by my credit card company when I buy the airline ticket but just to be safe I always buy extra insurance since it’s not that expensive and I’d rather be safe than sorry. Previously I used to be able to buy insurance from within my NBK Online page but that no longer seems to be an option. So, the only other way I’ve been able to buy insurance online before I travel is with Gulf Insurance. They have an online page where you could buy travel insurance (along with other insurance) and the process takes just a few minutes and payment is done with knet or a credit card. So if you’re looking to conveniently buy travel insurance before you trip then check out their website [Here]

Update: A reader highlighted another insurance provider called Columbus Direct which you can order travel insurance from online and they seem to offer more bang for the buck. Check them out [Here]

According to a contact of mine at one of the top English schools, their librarian last week received an official letter from the Ministry stating that Harry Potter books are now banned in Kuwait and all copies should be removed from the library. Whats interesting is that previously Harry Potter books were the only magic books that were actually allowed but it looks like that’s no longer the case.

Update: According to a friend who works at the library of a different English school, they weren’t requested to remove Harry Potter from their shelves.

Sultan Center seems to be expanding since they recently opened their Promenade Mall location in Hawali and now they’ve got two more locations opening up. The one above is at the Alfa gas station on the Gulf Road next to Shaab Park. That location has been empty ever since Alfa took over that gas station years ago and it seems Sultan Center have now taken it over and are opening an “Express” location there.

The second location they’re opening up is a pretty surprising one, they’re opening in Bneid Al Gar in the Massaleh Towers. I say surprising because the other than the Massaleh Towers, the area around them is pretty ghetto.

Thanks Jamal & Patrick

Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers have opened up their first location in Kuwait at the Avenues opposite The Cheesecake Factory. A friend of mine passed by and tried it for lunch and according to him they only have two items on the menu, chicken fingers and a chicken burger. His recommendation? Skip the chicken burger and order the chicken fingers instead.

Thanks @Qatami

Four Seasons have published a press release a few days ago listing their new hotels that will be opening in 2016 and they had the below little tidbit on the Kuwait branch:

The first Four Seasons in Kuwait will be the 263-room Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait at Burj Alshaya in the central business district. An Italian dining concept created around three wood-burning ovens as well as a pan-Asian restaurant – both with outdoor terraces on the penthouse level – will be among five food and beverage options. Interiors by Yabu Pushelberg will include a spectacular indoor pool in the beautifully designed spa and fitness complex.

I just checked out the portfolio of Yabu Pushelberg and based on his previous work, I’d say we’re going to be in for a treat. [Link]

Update: Hotel is now expected to open on February 15, 2017.

The blog was down this morning due to some technical issues. Basically the blog was infected with a malware and I had to restore the blog to an older backup from last week. Currently going through everything to see what information/comments the blog lost and trying to restore things to normal. Please bear with me.

Update: Everything is back to normal, no posts or comments were lost.