2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Phaidon Press (the best publisher in the world, period) uploaded a video to YouTube where the legendary photo-journalist and photographer Steve McCurry shares the amazing story behind the famous picture of the camels in front of the burning oil wells. [YouTube]

People, if you’re going to hold a party don’t put a flyer up in a public place. A reader shot the flyer above and posted on his flickr account and the 248AM Forum. The flyer says:

Gentlemen Club is open on this Saturday. Our club team is organizing an exclusive party for our NON-ARAB friends. This is a special even you should not miss.

Date: 09-Apr-2011
Time: 10:00pm – 3:00am
Venue:
Salmiya, Block 2
Abdullah Bin Masoud Street
Building # 3
Party room
(Keep Salmiya Holiday Inn main entrance and Electrozan electronic store to your right. Come until you see DukKan store which will be on your left. Building # 3 is left side building attached to DukKan).

Entrance: Male – 5 KD (Westerners only) / Female – Free

Here is a link to the flyer on [Flickr]

A reader emailed me yesterday telling me that they had installed strange new devices on the Ghazali Bridge (RD 60) and today another reader emailed me pictures of the actual devices. They don’t look like speed detectors to me, does anyone know what they do?

Thanks Babar

Update: This most probably is a non-intrusive detector that records vehicle count and then wirelessly transmits the data. [Link]

This has to be one of the coolest gadgets I’ve purchased in a while. I was looking for a camera I could set up in my apartment back in Lebanon so I could monitor my place while I’m here. Originally I had a budget of around $200 and started my search on Amazon. Within a few minutes I found out about the Foscam pictured above which had some pretty good features. The camera connects to your home network over Ethernet or WiFi, pans horizontally 300 degrees and tilts vertically 120 degrees, it has IR-LED for night vision, two way audio, remote viewing via a web browser and most importantly… it cost only $99! There must have been a catch but after reading the reviews I couldn’t find anything wrong with it and I placed an order for one.

The camera wasn’t that difficult to set up, I just plugged it into my network via Ethernet and ran an application that came with the camera that showed me what IP address the camera was using. I double clicked the IP address, it launched the browser and that was it. I could then watch a live video feed or change the settings. First thing I did was create a username and password and then set up the camera to work via my WiFi network. It was flawless.

Another cool thing is the fact there are a bunch of iPhone apps that work with the camera, I downloaded one called Foscam Surveillance which costs $4.99 and allows me to control and view the camera from my iPhone from anywhere in the world. It’s amazing and even the night vision mode works perfectly. It turns on and off automatically depending on the light in the room but you can also turn it on and off manually.

I’m going to purchase a few more of these cameras so I can place them all around my apartment in Lebanon and even in the garden. It can be used as a security camera and has the option to automatically take snapshots when it detects any movement and then email the shots to you. The night vision mode works at a distance of up to 8 meters which is also very cool.

If you’re interested in this camera it’s available for around KD27 on Amazon. Here is the [Link]

I was at Geant in 360 Mall and noticed they’re now carrying the brand Dyson. Dyson make some of the most beautifully designed products and I’ve always wondered why no one had brought them to Kuwait. I didn’t spot many products, just two actually but hopefully they will be getting more. I spotted the Dyson 10″ Desk Fan (pictured above) and it was selling for KD93 (costs KD82 on Amazon). I also saw the Dyson DC19 Vacuum Cleaner (pictured below) and it was selling for KD114.

As I mentioned the other day, if the Shake Shack beef patties aren’t as good as the patties used back in the US then we will end up with just a fake Shack. But I just found out via Buz Fairy that Shake Shack will be using the same beef they use in the US. Buz Fairy is currently in Dubai and while there she got to meet and speak to Shake Shack’s culinary manager Mark Rosati and he told her they were getting the beef from Creekstone Farms which is the same source from which LaFrieda (their US supplier) get’s their meat from. Now because its the same source but a different supplier I don’t think it’s going to be 100% the same but I doubt it would be different enough for me to be able to tell the difference.

Luckily Shake Shack Kuwait isn’t even close to opening yet so I won’t have a problem sticking to my diet.

Update: Here’s Buz Fairys review [Link]

Local movie maker Abdulrahman Alaskar emailed me saying he just found out his short movie titled TOKAI just got banned by the Ministry of Information from being screened at the Kuwait International Film Retreat that’s being held tomorrow. They haven’t given him any reason but if you search YouTube for “tokai kuwait” you can find and watch the movie (it’s in two parts). Once you watch the movie you can kind of develop your own theory on what their reasons for banning it might be. I would have embedded the videos or links in this post but I got worried if I did that then the MOI might ban my blog as well. Here is the synopsis for the movie:

TOKAI (street cleaner) is a short documentary that offers a glimpse into the lives of thousands of street cleaners who sweep the streets of oil rich Kuwait. In a country of abundance and wealth, these men earn menial salaries, as low as $50 a month and eventually regress into the forgotten inhabitants of the Middle East.

It’s a sensitive topic that’s for sure but do you think it merits a ban? I hope it all turns out to be just a misunderstanding.

Update: The Kuwait Film Retreat will still screen all banned films at the Hilton Hotel in Mangaf on Friday during the day. The Kuwait Film Retreat supports Kuwaiti filmmakers and will keep supporting them no matter what obstacles arise.

I thought this was a joke but it seems to be real. [Link]

Thanks Satish

Back in January I signed up to the Orbit ShowTime service and I although the signup process was very smooth I was worried their customer service would be problematic since when I had Showtime back in 2005 any issue I had they would tell me to pass by their main branch in Dajeej which was unpractical and annoying.

Well I ran into a problem recently with my Showbox receiver, it kept rebooting randomly every 5 minutes or so which was very annoying. I reset all the settings, upgraded to the latest software did whatever I could to try to get it fixed myself and nothing worked. I finally gave up and decided to give OSN a call, I was expecting them to tell me to take the receiver to their workshop in Dajeej which is why I tried to fix things myself but instead I was told a technician would come over on Monday (that was on Saturday). Sunday (the following day) I get a call from the technician telling me if I was free that day he could pass by. I was like no problem but did they tell you what my problem was? He was like you aren’t getting a signal. I was like no my Showbox keeps rebooting. He told me no problem he would replace it for me and a few hours later he did come over and swap my receiver with a new one.

Everything is working perfectly now and I didn’t even have to drive out to Dajeej to get my problem solved!

So I posted yesterday that I’m going to be working my ass off with cardio, gym and an extremely unappetizing diet to try and hit 12% body fat by the end of the month. But then today I spotted the above picture on a weight loss supplement, the guys “Before” fat percentage is what I want my “After” to be! Don’t know if this is depressing or funny.

Last week I was checking my facebook account and noticed the local Tamiya dealer (My Toy) started a weekly competition where people could win a Tamiya TRF 501x race buggy. So, I entered the competition and didn’t win BUT I did get an email asking if I would be interested in reviewing the new TRF 502x and I said yes of course.

It’s been two years since I last built a Tamiya car so I was pretty excited to pick the car up. Along with the 502x frame they’re lending me a servo, tires, lipo battery, brush-less motor and ecu. Basically everything I need to get the car built and running except for a radio controller and receiver since I will be using my own. Oh I also picked up fluorescent pink paint since I think a bright pink racing buggy with a black rear wing and black wheels might turn out pretty cool. Below is a picture of how the pile of boxes above will end up looking like once I am done.

Note: In case you’re an RC fan I have a section dedicated to RC stuff [Here]

As I mentioned last August, Shake Shack will be opening in place of Le Pain Quotidien at The Avenues. Since then I’ve been waiting and waiting for PQ to close down and I just found out they’ve now gone ahead and closed. This means they should start construction on Shake Shack right away and hopefully open up very soon. For those of you who live in Dubai, Shake Shack is opening up at Mall of Emirates this Thursday.

I think we’re going to be super lucky here because I highly doubt we’re going to have to wait in line for their burgers in the same way you don’t have to wait in line at Magnolia Bakery in Dubai. Below are pictures of the lines at both Shake Shack and Magnolia Bakery in New York. I waited 40 minutes in line at Shake Shack just to place an order!

What I still don’t know though is who will supply Shake Shack in the Middle East with the beef. In the US the beef is supplied by the famous Pat LaFrieda but I previously emailed them asking if their beef was Halal and they said it wasn’t. Hopefully by now they’ve worked some sort of deal with LaFrieda regarding this but will have to wait and see.

A friend just emailed me the following:

Thought you might be interested to know that I just left Symphony building and there are HUGE pannels of glass flying off the building, cause by the wind, and crashing into the parking lot. I tried to take a closer look but the whole area has been closed off and the fire department is on their way. From what I saw though one car got hit and is quite badly damaged and there were 3 other large peices of broken glass laying in various places in the parking lot

As usual if anyone has pictures email me them so I could post them here.

Thanks Ali

Update: Here is a picture of the damaged car sent in by a reader called Abdul Hameed. According to him this happened a couple of months back as well and that time the glass window landed on his friends car.

For some odd reason, smack dab in the middle of the Al-Anbaa Arabic newspaper website, there’s an English Edition of the paper. It’s a tiny section with not that many articles and I think it’s pretty weird. There isn’t an “English” button on the top of the page or anything like that, just scroll down half way and you’ll find it. I wonder if they’re planning on expanding it and having a proper English version of their website. [Link]

Thanks Abdulaziz

Just saw this picture of the Burger King and Pizza Hut branch at Entertainment City. When did they do this, it looks pretty cool. I haven’t been to Entertainment City since 2005 I think. Have they changed it much since then or is it still falling apart? [Picture Source]