2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

According to a recent ranking of top universities around the world, Kuwait barely makes the list coming in 701+ out of 800 (they just grouped the bottom 100 universities into one lump). Kuwait University was the only local university that made it into the top 800. On the other hand Saudi Arabia had 7 universities make the list including one that made it to #216, the highest amongst our neighbors. Oman, Qatar and the UAE all ranked higher than Kuwait as well.

Not good.

Check out the full rankings [Here]

Old KU photo above taken from [Here]

Q8Books is officially opening its door this coming Sunday. Other than a night full of cultural entertainment featuring artists Daxna, Monstariam, Dr. Foobar and Hamed Al-Refaei, Q8Books will also be introducing their outreach program. The bookstores opening hours will be 2 to 9PM and they’re located at Bayt Lothan (outside to the right of the main entrance). Pass by and follow them on Instagram @q8bookstore

Over the weekend I got to try AJ’s Food Truck and although I didn’t think much of the food I do love the idea of food trucks and I hope it catches on (and I’m guessing it will). With AJ’s Food Truck you have two options, you can either book them to come over with their truck and cater to you and your friends or you could follow them on Instagram and keep an eye out for when they park their truck somewhere so you could go and find them.

AJ’s Food Truck is a burger truck with a menu consisting of two kinds of burgers, a steak sandwich and a chicken burger. They also have sides like fries, onion rings and chicken tenders as well as drinks. But food trucks can of course be more than just burger trucks and I’d love to see a Chinese or Mexican food truck roaming around Kuwait.

If you want to find out more about AJ’s Food Truck you can check out their Instagram account @ajsfoodtruck

I found out last night that Katsuya by S+ARCK will be opening in the middle of October. Katsuya by S+ARCK is a Japanese restaurant that is designed by the famous product and interior designer, Philippe Starck. The franchise was brought to the region by Alshaya and their first location in Kuwait is located in Avenues Phase III near Gaucho Grill.

Picture above taken from the Philippe Starck website.

Update: Katsuya is now open [Link]

No idea from what year since the video doesn’t have a description. [YouTube]

I passed by Sharq today to check out the prices of the iPhone 5S. Most of the shops didn’t have it yet but the ones that did were selling the 16GB from KD320 to as high as KD360. Eureka Electronics also has the iPhone 5S in stock and they’re selling the 16GB for KD300. They also have the iPhone 5C 16GB for KD220.

Prices will obviously drop once the market is saturated.

So a lot of you have a read a few of my posts discussing different crimes under the Kuwaiti Penal Law and how the punishments were in Rupees. This caused quite a stir with a lot of people with many asking why the punishments were in Rupees instead of Kuwaiti Dinars. Some of the readers even claimed that those laws no longer applied because the punishments were in Rupees. Firstly that’s not true, the laws are still valid even though they are in Rupees. Secondly, below is an explanation on why Kuwait uses Rupees instead of Kuwaiti Dinars:

The History of the Use of Rupees in Kuwait
They were called the Arabian Gulf Rupees by the people that called our area the Arabian Gulf, and they were also called the Persian Rupees by the people that called our area the Persian Gulf. I decided that I am going to call them the Penal Law Rupees in this post.

The Penal Law Rupees were used in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the Trucial States (now famously known as UAE or should I just say Dubai). They were printed by India and it was used in Kuwait from 1959-1961. You can still find them on eBay selling from a few hundred dollars and all the way up to a few thousand dollars (I am so totally going through my granddads closet today! https://www.ebay.com/bhp/india-gulf-rupee).

The laws that have rupees as punishments and their implications
The Penal Law was promulgated (published) in 1960 which is why the punishments were in Rupees since that was the currency of Kuwait at that time. The currency was changed to Kuwaiti Dinars in 1961 (thanks to our awesome Constitution) and a new law had to be promulgated to change the Rupees to dinars. But you know how things take time in Kuwait and it took a little bit longer than expected to get this sorted… around 24 years.

In 1985 law no. 9 was published “for the replacement of the rupees by the Kuwaiti Dinar wherever stated in the Laws”, and in Article 1 of the law it states that rupees shall be exchanged to 75 fils, wherever they are mentioned in Kuwaiti Law.

So this is why Kuwait uses Rupees in the Kuwait Penal Law. If you want to read more about the Rupees history check out my sources [Here] and [Here].

If anyone finds Rupees in their mums closet then please email us a photo.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.

Back in 2011, someone decided it would be smart to reduce the size of the middle sidewalk in old Salmiya by creating a dirt pit around all the trees. I guess the idea was that they would plant these pits with greenery which I was against since I knew no one would maintain it. I received some criticism regarding my views because I wasn’t being optimistic.

Well the picture above is how the median looks like over 2 years later. This is why I was suggesting the other day they plant fake grass in old Salmiya instead of destroying the beautiful Gulf Road with fake grass.

The Instagram blog and official account featured the account of Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah a few days ago. Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah who was the person behind Villa Moda has been taking photos of household objects on stark white backgrounds which has proven to be popular with his followers.

I’m not aware of any other Kuwaiti account that has been featured on Instagram before. The photo they featured has already received over 300,000 likes while the article on the blog has received over 1,000 notes. You can check out his account by following him on @majedalsabahkuwait and you can also check out the feature on him [Here]

Thanks @geekinkuwait

Back in May I posted that Q8Books, the used books store was closing down. Well since then a lot of things have happened. Q8Books did in fact close down but all the books were purchased by Fajer the lawyer and she’s moved the bookstore into a much larger location in Salmiya. She’s bringing back Q8Books and it’s going to be better than ever. The new location is at Bayt Lothan and it’s around four times the size of the older location.

The bookshop is nearly done and Fajer is planning to relaunch it sometime next week. Once it’s officially open I’ll have her post about it with more details including information on how you can donate books and on the bookstore’s outreach project to support a library in Gambia. For now you can follow them on Instagram to see what they’re up to @q8bookstore

I just upgraded my iPhone to iOS7 and realized both my 248AM and Kuwait Blogs app now no longer work. I need to update them so will be doing so this weekend. Once the update is available I’ll let you know.

[YouTube]

Firas Assaad is an expat born and living Kuwait and works as a software developer in a small company in the city. Firas had always wanted to make games and so for the past 2 years he’s worked on a side project called Octopus City Blues.

I found out about Octopus City Blues last night when I got an email from a reader telling me about a Kickstarter project based from Kuwait. Firas went on Kickstarter to secure funding to help pay the other team members for their time and was hoping to get just $7,000 but with 6 days left he’s already gotten pledges of nearly $17,000. The game looks super cool and trippy plus it’s 2D which I love. You can watch the trailer on top to see the style of the game and below are some links with more information on Firas and the project:

Octopus City Blues on Kickstarter
Octopus City Blues Interview: Grab that Tentacle!
Octopus City Blues website

Thanks Hish

There will be music, face painting, a puppet show and other activities.

Date: Saturday, September 21st 2013
Time: 5:30PM to 9:00PM
Location: Contemporary Art Platform (CAP)

The Peacock which was unarguably the best Chinese restaurant in Kuwait is reopening its doors this coming Saturday. The Peacock was located in Radisson Blu Hotel which recently reopened after going through a complete overhaul. To reserve you need to call them on 25673000.

FYI: For Saturday they’re already fully booked and currently have just one more table left for 8

I’ve already posted about this before but since schools just started it would be a good time to remind everyone about it.

The Regional Center for Development of Educational Software (ReDSOFT) have created a pretty amazing iOS App which allows you to download all the books for all grades required by of the Ministry of Education in Kuwait. You just have to tell the App which class you’re in and then you will then have access to all the books that are required by the Ministry for that year. The App is called “كتابي” but if you don’t have an Arabic keyboard setup on your iPhone or iPad then you can search for “nader marafie” in the App store and you’ll find the app or even better here is the direct link to the App Store [Link]