2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

This sounds pretty cool, looks like Cartoon Network is opening a theme park in Kuwait.

Cartoon Network Enterprises has entered into an agreement with Future Kid & Real Estate Co. to develop a fully branded Cartoon Network theme park in Kuwait City. The 3,500 square meter venue is scheduled to open at the end of 2008.

“This is a timely and exciting deal which puts Turner at the heart of a thriving entertainment industry in the Middle East,” says Jeff Kupsky, president of Turner Broadcasting System Europe, owner of

Cartoon Network. “The Kuwait City indoor theme park will enable visitors to sample the Cartoon Network experience on a grand scale, and truly interact with our characters and brands.”

[Source]

Thanks MFS!

I don’t know how accurate this information is since it was posted as a comment by a reader of the blog but according to him the IKEA owners are in dispute with the Avenues management due to the new outlet of Alghanim at the Avenues. Alghanim launched a new concept store right across from IKEA where they are selling electronics AND furniture. The agreement between IKEA and the Avenues is that they should be the only furniture outlet in the mall.

According to the same reader a fight has also started between Carrefour and IKEA against the Avenues management. Neither Carrefour nor IKEA are willing to accept the fact that their customers now have to pay for parking.

Finally just some more info. Carrefour paid KD3.5 per square meter, IKEA paid KD4.5 while Alghanim paid KD10 per square meter for their store.

Again, I don’t know how accurate the information above is but it sounds plausible.

A friend just passed me this flyer and I can’t believe some of the prices on these products. For example the 8GB Cruzer costs KD14 in Kuwait while on Amazon its selling for KD17.5 [Flyer Scan]

I really want the Herman Miller Aeron chair for my office. One of my clients has them in their conference room and the chair is super comfy. I checked on Amazon and they sell the chair for KD205 ($749). The price at the local dealer? KD420.

If you check the tiny holograms of the Kuwait emblem on the new license plates you will notice they are all upside down. (not shown in picture above)

I just found out from CNN that Roy Scheider has passed away. He wasn’t one of my favorite actors but I never minded him and he actually was the lead star on many of my favorite movies and tv shows including Jaws, 2010: The Year We Make Contact and SeaQuest DSV. Sucks. [Link]

This is the list of torrent sites sent out by the MOC to the ISP’s to block (here is a link to yesterdays post in case you missed it). On my offices FastTelco connection most of them are already non accessible.

www.demonoid.com
www.extratorrent.com
www.fulldls.com
www.meganova.org
www.seedpeer.com
www.nfo.co.il
www.piratic.org
www.worldnova.org
www.power-portal.to
www.smartorrent.com
www.thepiratebay.org
www.torrentazos.com
www.torrent-base.dl.am
www.torrentlounge.com
www.torrentplaza.be
www.tvtorrents.com
www.xphilez.com
www.zakatron.com
www.zonaemule.com
www.zoozle.de

Thanks MX5

Choowy Goowy sent me the following email regarding their Valentines offer:

On the occasion of Valentines Day Choowy Goowy have assembled a ChoowyLove Basket.

The basket contains:
– a jar of Choowy Goowy heart shaped cookies
– 16 heart shaped brownies boxed
– 2 special valentine gold boxes containing 2 pieces of cookies and 1 piece of brownie in each
– a red rose

Price of the basket is KD25

For any questions send us an email
or just call us on 2626559 / 2620011

I thought the Burgan Bank logo was bad but the new ABK logo is even worse. Where do I start? First the typography, why is the letter “a” in lowercase while “BK” in uppercase? The Arabic and English types also don’t match, I think the English should have been based on the Arabic one and both should have at least been the same weight. Currently the English type is too heavy compared to the Arabic while in the old logo they were more balanced. The new icon also looks very generic and flat compared to the old one. The new icon is simply a square box while the older one had a more interesting open shape to it. I am sure they changed the logo because they wanted something that looks more modern which has actually worked in this case but I think thats the only thing that has worked. I would have posted about this logo Friday when I first saw the billboards on the Gulf Road but I couldn’t get a hold of the new logo since up until now their website hasn’t been updated. I had to get the logo from Fonzy’s blog who has also posted about the new logo. If anyone knows the name of the branding agency behind the new logo please post it in the comments.

Starting today The Avenues parking will no longer be free. I think thats a good thing because I know a lot of people would rather park outside and not pay which means more parking space inside for me. If only Marina Mall started charging for parking also. Its got to suck for the employees though.

update: Parking turns out is 200fils an hour which is expensive! The mall is big and walking around takes over an hour so expect to pay at the very least 400fils if you are just walking around or going there for lunch.

The Ministry of Communications has sent a letter to all the Internet providers in Kuwait to block all the torrent sites. They sent out a list of sites today to be blocked which I am trying to get a hold of. Hopefully my favorite torrent site (I won’t mention the name) is not on that list.

Recently the subject of segregating the private schools has come back into the limelight. I am personally against this because I think its unhealthy for the male and female students not to mingle while they are young. With regards to this subject a reader asked me to share the following message with everyone:

Your support is needed to attend and pass this message on to others: There is an important gathering at the Kuwait Womans Society in Khaldiya on Tuesday at 6pm in which they want owners of foreign schools and Kuwaiti parents and students to attend to contest the segregation law. They also want to invite as many Arabic speaking parents to support this event. Lots of press and MP’s will attend. Try and make it. Thank you.

Here are two better shots of the new Alghanim Electronics store that opened up at the Avenues. There were less people there today so it was easier to take the shots.

The writers strike is unofficially over, a few weeks before the Oscars.

Seeing how there is tons of news covering the issue, I am going to keep this simple and concise:

1. Writers should start getting back to work by Monday.
2. Most shows would begin writing scripts and reworking the storylines.
3. It would take 6 – 8 weeks to get up and running.
4. For those continuing the season: Expect 4 – 6 episodes left, airing in April (late) – May.
5. Other networks may scrap the season and begin production for next season (Aug – Sep).

The writers strike has also affected Movies, as most scripts were placed on hold. Expect production to resume; with releases (Da Vinci code 2) showing up sometime in the Winter.

More information can be found [here].

Posted by K.

the Internet is fixed .. long live the internet.

There is finally a light at the end of the tunnel (pun intended). Flag Telecom has reported that both links will be fully operational by February 10th now.

Cut # 1: FLAG EUROPE ASIA Cable cut between Alexandria (Egypt) and Palermo (Italy)

• The repair crew of marine experts, optical engineers has reached the site yesterday and it is expected that the splice work will be carried out today. It is currently planned that the repairs will be completed by Sunday, February 10th 2008.

Cut # 2: FALCON Cable cut between Dubai (UAE) and Al SEEB (Oman)

1. The ship loaded with spares, marine experts, and optical engineers have reached the site yesterday. The crew has recovered the one end of the cable and cable joining work is in progress.
2. The repair team has observed steady progress and the repair work are expected to be completed by Sunday, February 10th 2008.

I personally find it quite ironic that the Internet issue is fixed the day after InfoConnect; memo to Gitex, there is no need to sabotage our event (the organizers are doing it for you). Until the internet is fully operational, I suggest you check out Mark’s post on the ‘The internet’s undersea world‘. One of the more unnoticed parts of the image is the available/used capacity of the underwater link.

The fiber links around the world can handle up to 7.1 tbps. The capacity ‘purchased/reserved’ by ISPs is 5.7tbps. Which leads us to ask .. how much of the internet capacity is actually being used? 2.1tbps. In theory, everyone (around the world) could have triple the internet speeds and the fiber links would still have roughly 15% left of unused capacity.

-Posted by K.