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The blog is currently being prepared to be moved over to the new server on Rackspace. The forum is going to be shut down until the move is completed and there will be no posts on this blog until Saturday.

If you leave a comment from now till Saturday on this blog there is a chance it won’t be there once the blog is up on the new server. Sorry for any inconvenience, it should be a quick and painless move.

Update: Ok the forum is now on Rackspace. Its no longer mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com/forum you now can access it by going to forum.mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com

Update2: The blog is now on Rackspace. Took only around an hour thanks to Rami.

Update3: My email is still down at the moment.

Update4: Email is working and by the looks of it everything else on the blog. The move is complete, I just have a few things related to the theme and the forum I need to adjust. Rackspace my server provider emailed me and then called me because they read on my twitter I was having minor issues. They read my twitter and then called me! Thats fanatical support!

A reader of the blog called Pete took this picture of what looks like a new radar camera here in Kuwait. I’ve never see one these before so not really sure what it is. Here is the original link to this shot [Link]

Starting from the 26th of March The Scientific Center will be playing the new IMAX film called Journey to Mecca. I first heard about this movie from a blogger called Ahmad who posted about his experience on the movie set as a camera assist. Well the movie is now completed and it will be premiering in Kuwait on Thursday. Here is the synopsis I was sent:

Journey to Mecca is an IMAX dramatic and documentary feature that tells the amazing story of Ibn Battuta, the greatest explorer of the Old World, following his first pilgrimage between 1325 and 1326 from Tangier to Mecca. His perilous journey resonates with adventure while presenting an unforgettable picture of Islamic civilization during the 14th century, culminating with Ibn Battuta’s first Hajj. The story is book-ended by a close-up look at the contemporary Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca that draws three million Muslims from around the world. English narration of the film is done by Ben Kingsley, the acclaimed and internationally renowned actor.

I was also sent a timetable for the movie times which you can download as a pdf by clicking [Here]
Here is a link to the trailer. [Link]

The price of the ticket is KD3 for adults and KD2 for children.

I’ve never been to an IMAX movie yet but one movie I do want to watch that luckily is still playing at The Scientific Center is Fires of Kuwait. I’ve been wanting to watch the documentary ever since it got released back in 1992 and I still haven’t watched it!

Thanks Hind!

I was checking out Nemo’s blog when I found her post on a cafe located in Omneya complex in Salmiya called Book Cafe.

This is the description taken from the Book Cafe facebook page:

A quiet place
Provides you with Taekwondo, physical and mental relaxation
To think deeply, to read a book, to discuss a draft
My place is the beginning to achieve a place for you in the world
Start here

Judging by the pictures the place looks cool (color matches my blog) and the idea seems interesting but not too sure about the location. Nat also brought up a good point that usually when you want to read a book its more comfortable to read it while sitting on a sofa not a dinning room table. So bean bags or cozy sofas might be more suitable…

You can check out more pictures on Nemo’s blog [Here]
Here is the link to the Book Cafe’s facebook page [Link]

Picture taken by Nemo

Abdullah from the blog P0ach.com sent me these pictures to share with everyone. There are 10 pictures in total and they all have their descriptions underneath. This is the first time I display the pictures this way so if anyone has any problem viewing them or if the sites template looks strange please tell me so I can look into it. Click on continue below to see the pictures.

Thanks Abdullah!

I was out of the country when the military parade took place recently in Kuwait but a reader of my blog who was at the event took some pictures which I’ve uploaded online. To check out the pictures click [Here]

Thanks Salem!

I promise this will be the last photography related post for this week but I’ve really been wanting to post this ever since I saw the pictures on Nibaqs blog. Someone Verity Cridland scanned and restored photos they she had taken of Kuwait back in the early 1960’s and then uploaded all the photos onto her flickr account. There are a lot of great pictures there so please check them out. [Pictures]

Thanks Nibaq!

K5 has an interesting post about this cool little store he found called Nawader Al Kuwait. The place has a huge collection of vintage Arabic vinyl records and also vintage radios and record players. The place also has other random items, personally I am interested in the painting of the musicians above so I might pass by tonight to check the place out. You can see more pictures and information about the place on K5’s blog [Here]

Yesterday I posted about how disappointing the Teshkeel Comics theme park looks like and today I found a post on another blog about the Cartoon Network theme park which already opened and looks pretty cool. I can’t seem to figure out where its located though. You can check out pictures of the Cartoon Network on the blog P0ach by following this [Link]

When I first started this blog over 4 years ago I was getting only a handful of visitors a day. Since then the site hasn’t stopped growing and I’m now averaging over 10,000 visitors a day. From day 1 the blog was being hosted by a good friend but now it’s time for me to move the blog to its own dedicated server.

I just signed up with Rackspace, a leading web hosting provider hosting sites like Threadless, 37signals, Liquid Web Laughing Squid, ESPN, Disney Online, Motorola, Canon USA and more. They gave me a really good deal and promised to have my server up and running by Tuesday. This means I would probably start moving my blog to the new server sometime late next week.

If you’re interested my new server will have the following specs:

Dell 2850
Dual socket = 2 Xeon 3.2 GHz performance CPU’s
Two 146GB 10,000 rpm Hard drives (Raid 1)
4GB RAM
1 x Cisco 506 Firewall
24x7x365 Unlimited live person support
Guaranteed 1 hour hardware replacement
100% network uptime (Backbone = 65GB throughput)
1000 GB High Performance, Tier 1 Redundant Bandwidth
Constant network monitoring for latencies and intrusion

During the move there should be some downtime but I will post about it ahead of time.

[YouTube]

This fire happened on Wednesday and resulted in two dead woman and 64 injured. What I found shocking is this:

Relatives of the women initially blocked firefighters from entering the wedding hall, an action that some suggest may have contributed to the disaster. According to an eyewitness, when firemen first arrived at the scene, they were prevented from entering the hall by some men (apparently relatives of some of the women inside) on the grounds that it was an all-women place. “You can’t get in,” they shouted.

According to eyewitnesses, the hall was filled with smoke at first, which frightened the guests. They panicked and a stampede broke out when flames began to engulf the area.

Witnesses added that what aggravated the situation was the fact that many women who were trying to flee the scene, stopped to put on their veils and head covers. They also said that the hall accommodated 220 women and children. [Kuwait Times]

Thanks Kuwait Black Market!

A reader of the blog sent me pictures of Dean & Deluca so if you haven’t been there yet click on continue below to check the place out. By the way, if you’re a salami fan I think they’ve got the best salami in Kuwait… but thats probably because they don’t have ANY competition!

Yesterday the American International School of Kuwait had a bomb scare when they got a phone call from someone in Spain telling them there was a bomb in their school. After all the students were evacuated it turned out to be a hoax. Today they had another bomb scare. It isn’t confirmed yet if it was another phone call but the rumor is, and again I want to highlight the word RUMOR here, is that a school teacher found the bomb today on the way to the bathroom and that’s why they were evacuated. Hopefully that doesn’t turn out to be true and stays a rumor.

Update: Looks like they did find something at the school, a box with a clock and random wires. Turns out it was a senior prank.

Update2: Here is suposedly a leaked photo of the fake bomb taken from Al Rai newspaper. Thanks Armani Exchanger!

Murqab a reader of the blog sent in the above two receipts. One is for a tall hot chocolate he purchased at a Starbucks in New York and the other is of a tall hot chocolate he purchased at a Starbucks in Kuwait. So how much of a difference is there in price? According to the popular online currency site XE.com, Murqab paid 900fils for his hot chocolate in New York and KD1.500 for his hot chocolate in Kuwait. Thats makes the Starbucks in Kuwait 60% more expensive than the States.

Abdullah, a reader of the blog sent me a picture of the giant wall sticker above which he took while he was in the States. The reason he sent it to me is because it looked very similar to Kuwait’s national logo (also pictured above). I wonder if a Kuwaiti living in the States remixed the logo or if Shepard Fairey (the guy behind OBEY) did it himself. He already admitted that his famous Obama Hope poster was based on a copyrighted photograph so it wouldn’t be to far fetched to think that he based this design on the Kuwaiti national logo. For those of you who don’t know anything about OBEY or Shepard Fairey, check this [Link]