2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

40 years ago, NASA’s Landsat program launched it’s initial satellite into space (July 23, 1972). Since then the program has been tracking and recording changes on the Earth’s surface via satellite imagery.

Since it’s been 40 years, NASA commemorated the anniversary by selecting and compiling a list of its top ten stories or revealing images which it had stored up during its four decades of existence. One of the stories that made the top 10 was the 1991 Kuwait Oil Fires.

As Iraqi troops withdrew from Kuwait at the end of the first Gulf War, they set fire to over 650 oil wells and damaged many more, just south of the Iraq border (yellow line). These Landsat images show before, during and after the release of 1.5 billion barrels of oil into the environment, the largest oil spill in human history.

You can check out the top 10 stories and images on [WIRED]

Someone upload a video of highlights of the Kuwait and Nigeria match that took place at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, USSR. Kuwait won that match 3-1 (they scored an embarrassing self goal) and during the tournament managed to make their way to the quarterfinals before being eliminated by the Soviet Union 2-1. [YouTube]

Palm trees next to a building near Marina Mall caught fire in the morning, Some of the cars were burnt as a result. Kuwait fire department was quick to douse the fire, small video from the incident (I guess no one was injured in the incident)

Happened earlier today. [YouTube]

مسلسل عمر

Check out both intros.

Game of Thrones

Thanks Mbahrani

Heard about this service ages ago but never bothered to find out how to subscribe to it. The MOI SMS service when signed up to it will notify you when you commit traffic violations. The sign up fee is KD1 and then it’s 40fils per SMS notification. Here are the sign up instructions:

To subscribe, send the following SMS:
E(space)Civil ID

Example:
E 1111111111

Send the SMS to one of the following numbers:
Zain Subscribers 992
Viva Subscribers 55250
Wataniya Subscribers 1750

via PeachBox

The popular Kuwait guide iPhone app Urban Moon just got a major update yesterday. The biggest difference I’ve noticed is the speed of the app. My biggest complaint with their previous version is that once you launched the app you had to wait a few seconds for it to download the latest phone numbers. Now the downloads take place in the background so you can start using the app as soon as you launch it.

Another new feature is that the app will now contain reviews. Currently restaurants in the app have a generic description but they’ve already started writing reviews and soon they’ll be swapping out the generic descriptions with honest reviews of the restaurants. That I think could be interesting and maybe even more so if they allow people to submit their own reviews similar to the Yelp app.

You can check out the full list of improvements and features in the Apple Store [Here]

He’s actually pretty good. [YouTube]

Thanks TJCfilms

The Al-Hasawi family promised if they took over Nottingham Forest they would offer Kuwaitis a chance to play for the team. Looks like they’re sticking to their promise because Kuwaiti footballer Bader Al-Mutawa is set to begin a month-long trial with Nottingham Forest.

Arabian Business have more details [Here]

The Fixtures just posted a short interview with Nasser Al Sayegh who is Kuwait’s first nuclear engineer. He seems like a smart guy (obviously) and if people like him ran the plant Kuwait would be in safe hands so it’s too bad Kuwait scrapped all their nuclear ambitions. You can read the interview with Nasser on The Fixture’s blog [Here]

In case you missed it, here is a previous video interview with Nasser taken from AlRai TV. [YouTube]

Update: Some readers have pointed out in the comments that Nasser is not the first Kuwaiti to get a degree in Nuclear engineering. But, it’s possible he might be the only Kuwaiti nuclear engineer to actually work in the field. I’m trying to get some more clarification on this.

Update2: Nasser has posted the following comment in relation to the above:

To clarify things up I’m the first specialized person in the nuclear field In Kuwait. Although the others did get there certificates before me they didn’t actually work in a nuclear reactor so all what they have is theoretical backgrounds. I’m also the only person in the gulf that has a security clearance to work in nuclear reactors around Europe.

I’ve collected most of this years Ramadan commercials and listed them all below after the jump. If you prefer you could also watch them all consecutively by playing the video above or on YouTube [Here]

Note: I will keep adding to the list below, if there is any good commercial I’ve missed let me know.

Update: Added the National Youth Project commercial
Update2: Added Asnan Tower’s commercial
Update3: Added 6alabat and ABK
Update4: Added new Zain, Viva and McDonalds commercials

Shani, for every occasion.

Local tshirt brand Capital District have a new line of tshirts which were done in collaboration with Slider Station. From the 3 different colored shirts I ordered the burger one pictured above since I thought it was black but disappointingly turned out to be brown. You can check out the tshirts on the Capital District website, the Slider Station ones start with “SS”. [Link]

According to Forbes, Kuwait is the 7th laziest country in the world. But, on the bright side, Saudi Arabia came in third so at least we’re not the worst in the region. [Link]

Thanks Sahar

The 99 comic book has now turned into an animated series which will be broadcasted exclusively online this Ramadan on Yahoo. Firstly just to be clear I’m a huge fan of The 99 concept and a very big supporter of the creator Naif Al-Mutawa. I really love how a local idea turned into a worldwide sensation and it goes to show how success can be achieved even if you live in tiny little dusty Kuwait.

But, I’m not sure what to make of this Yahoo deal. Does anyone in our region watch TV online? Watching a one minute video on YouTube of a cute cat playing the keyboard is one thing but watching a full 30 minute animation on Yahoo is another. I would much rather have had the animated series launch on a satellite channel or even YouTube. Right now I can’t even embed The 99 trailer into this post because Yahoo doesn’t seem to have that feature. Check out the announcement and trailer on Yahoo over [Here]

Update: According to Alarabiya it’s also going to be broadcasted on MBC3. Now that makes sense, not sure why Yahoo would say they have the exclusivity when they don’t. [Link]

Earlier today I got a press release from Avenues regarding their new Multi-Purpose Hall that’s being constructed as part of Avenues Phase III. Since I hadn’t heard any information for quite sometime on the Avenues mosque that was designed by Zaha Hadid (pictured above) I asked them about it. Turns out for some reason they decided not to build it! Turns out it was only a concept design but never got the go ahead.

I think that’s such a major disappointment. Zaha Hadid is such an incredible visionary and I’m 100% sure the mosque when completed would have looked a hundred times nicer than the rendering above. Just watch the video below and look at what she did with the Guangzhou Opera House in China.

[YouTube]

Imagine how beautiful and futuristic this mosque would have turned out to be. It would have been a landmark for sure and now it’s never going to happen. I’m pissed off.