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Racers in Kuwait are getting pretty nifty with their filming. The one above has a 3 camera set up! Here is the video description:

Honda NSX-R 500hp Vs 700hp HPE LS9 Hennessey Camaro…
strocked engine built by SOS (Science of Speed)
with a LoveFab single turbo.
+Race was in K-town on 2Lions St.. Time: After Midnight
MUSIC:Swanky Tunes & Hard Rock Sofa – I Wanna Be Your Dog

[YouTube]

A reader emailed me yesterday warning me of the following:

Three employees from XXXXX admitted with contagious Bacterial Meningitis in the last 4 days. Today, another patient was admitted. I was in XXXXX 3 days ago. I went for a vaccine update and took prophylactic antibiotics. I am a surgeon in Adan. I recommend anyone who has been to XXXXX in the last week to go get a meningococcal vaccination and possibly rifampin or ciprofloxacin antibiotic.

Now I’ve replaced the name of the place with XXXXX since I can’t confirm if the information ir true or not but I just saw the article below on Arab Times:

Rumours rife as famous market worker falls dead, 6 sent to ICU
An employee of a well known shopping complex in Al-Rai area died and six others were referred to the Intensive Care Unit of Farwaniya Hospital after complaining of severe pain in the chest and cough.

The cause of the death could not be ascertained through preliminary tests, but some said the victim died of meningitis, while others said it was a swine flu case.

Co-workers of the deceased, who worked in the vegetables section of the hypermarket, said he suddenly felt severe pain in the chest which was accompanied with a bout of cough. The man fell down shortly afterwards and died. This spread terror among other employees and six individuals who complained of similar symptoms were rushed to the ICU.
Sources said the hypermarket’s administration sent employees for vaccination at Kuwait Clinic in groups to keep work going at the shopping center.

Senior officials at the Health Ministry have refused to confirm or refute the incident. Manager of Infectious Diseases Hospital Dr Jamal Al-Duaij, however, said they did not receive any such case and added that the ministry had earlier instructed that all infectious cases be sent to hospitals in the victims’ area of residence. He said he did not receive any call from the ministry on any emergency and added that it did not announce anything about meningitis. [Source]

Picture taken from the Arab Times article.

Update: For those of you posting the name of the shop in the comments I am not allowing it. If you think you know the shop that’s great, just don’t post it in the comments below.

Update2: Arab Times posted an update to the story, looks like it was a false alarm…

“I wish to state categorically that claims about widespread infection in Kuwait are a bundle of lies and rumor by mischievous personalities. I repeat that the ministry only recorded two of such cases”, the health director reiterated. [Source]

Speaking of a smoking ban…

A group of young students surprised shoppers at one of Kuwait’s most frequented malls by shouting anti-smoking slogans and carrying posters asking smokers to stub out their cigarettes.

The stunt, unprecedented in Kuwait where smoking is a major issue, was meant to embarrass those who flouted the law that bans smoking in malls and other closed places, Shuaa Al Qadhi, the head of public relations, said.

Several of the shoppers and people at the mall felt uneasy when they saw the young girls and boys urging them to put out their cigarettes and they complied, she said, local daily Al Qabas reported on Tuesday.

Smoking has been banned in closed areas in Kuwait since 1994, but the rule is often broken.

A field study has found that a cigarette is lit every 58 seconds at Kuwait International Airport and that 20 per cent of grown ups and 11 per cent of teenagers regularly smoke in Kuwait, the daily said. [Source]

Did anyone take pictures or shoot any video of this?

inister of Public Works and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Dr. Fadhil Safar stressd here on Monday the need to take the necessary requirements and regulations to prohibit smoking and the hubbly bubbly, known as “shisha,” in public places, restaurants and cafes.

The minister told KUNA while attending the 12th meeting of the Higher Committee for planning in Kuwait Municipality that smoking and shisha constitute negative aspects of civilization and harmful to public health.

For his part, head of the follow-up office of the Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Abdul Karim Al-Zaid said that the committee commissioned the Technical Office of the Minister of State for Municipal Affairs to study the possibility of banning shisha at once.

He said the High Commission had reviewed and discussed the report and recommended a joint coordination between the Technical Office and the Legal Department for taking necessary action and to stiffen sanctions on such phenomenon. [Source]

I’m not sure if they’re talking about a complete ban on shishas or what exactly. The article says they want to ban shishas in “public places, restaurants and cafes” and to me that sounds like a complete ban which I think would be a bit extreme. On the other hand it would make a lot more sense if they want to ban shishas from “indoor” public places, restaurants and cafes. Personally I would rather they focus on banning indoor smoking first since to me that’s a bigger issue and in any case, by banning indoor smoking it would basically also ban indoor shishas.

According to K’S PATH, thats a picture of Sulaibikhat beach here in Kuwait, home to mangroves, flamingoes and many bird species. Sucks. [Link]

via LWDLIK

Update: Below are before and after pictures. According to K’s PATH they manually collected approximately 2 tonnes waste from this stretch itself in a single clean-up operation of 4 hours. There’s still lots to do to protect this fragile habitat and they’ll be back at Sulaibikhat to clean it up on Fri Jan 6th, Fri Jan 13th and Fri Jan 20th. For more information or if you’re interested in volunteering, click [Here]

Decathlon, the giant French sporting good chain is coming to Kuwait and opening up in place of Virgin Megastore at Marina Mall.

Just heard that Virgin Megastore is going to be closing down by end of January. I’m not sure if they’re reopening somewhere else but their closure definitely isn’t a surprise. Their book collection is small, their music section is smaller and their movie section practically non existent. Still, it would be sad to see it go.

Thanks EEK! | Photo by Bashar

Update: Projekt Cyan just got me more information regarding the closure of Virgin. Firstly they won’t be relocating, they’re shutting down their Kuwait operation for good. Secondly, they’re also closing down the Moa, Pre Natal and Piazza Itala stores, all of which are located adjacent to Virgin. They’re instead going to group the 4 store spaces together and open up Decathlon which is a huge French sports equipment store.

This specific incident took place in Salmiya. [YouTube]

This is a very simple app which allows you to track incoming and departing flights at the Kuwait Airport. Back in the old days (I’m talking around 2001-2002 here) the Kuwait Airport website was terrible (kinda like now) but it had one very cool feature. When you accessed the airport website from a PDA browser, it wouldn’t take you to the regular website but instead take to a very simple white background site with just a list of incoming flights on it. It was PERFECT! A lot of times when I needed to check the arrivals list it would usually be when I’m on my way to the airport and from a mobile device. That simplified version of the website made things very practical and I was actually really surprised the airport website had that feature. Sadly, this cool feature disappeared years ago without a trace.

Which brings me to this app. It’s fast and focused. It’s actually the fastest launching app on my iPhone right now. So fast I actually had a VERY difficult time capturing a screenshot of the splash screen. Once the app loads it downloads the list of arriving and departing flights and you’re set. You can then scroll down the lists or search for a specific flight number or airline.

There are no negatives other than the fact the app isn’t free. You can download it from the App Store by searching for Kuwait Airport or by following this [Link]

[YouTube]

So last night I was trying to go to sleep at around 1:30am when I heard a loud commotion outside. I’m used to fights taking place underneath my building since there is a billiard place next door but this didn’t sound like an ordinary fight since it was pretty loud. So I put on my pants and hoodie and headed downstairs to see what all the commotion was about.

Turns out there were around 30 guys pushing, shoving, shouting and punching over I don’t know what. I thought about taking my phone out and shooting some pictures or video but since no one else was doing it I figured it would probably not be a good idea to do so. I ended up going back up to try and go back to sleep but around 15 minutes later 5 police cars arrive filled with cops.

Now that’s the first time I’ve ever seen cops come to a fight in my block. I’ve actually tried calling the cops myself before when there were guys running around the mall in my building with razor blades trying to cut each other and the cops never came. So my theory is this. I think the cops are starting to take these street fights seriously after the incident that took place at Marina Crescent. Are they waiting for a major incident to take place on the Gulf Road before they start patrolling it?

A friend of mine here in Kuwait got the Wacom Inkling and has some samples up. If you don’t know what the inkling is, it’s basically a small device you attach to your notebook and whatever you draw in your sketch book or on paper will be transferred as a digital drawing to your computer.

According to him “it’s good for fast sketching but not good enough for tight detail doodling”. He has two examples which explain his comments which you can check out. You’ll notice some of the digital lines are not in the same place as the original drawings as well as some details missing. Check out the two samples [Here] and [Here]

The Inkling isn’t available on Amazon yet. He had a friend in Hong Kong purchase it for him and ship it to his Aramex China mailbox.

Thanks Pinot

What more can I do? I’ve already complained about the issues that take place on the Gulf Road a million times already on the blog and I haven’t seen any improvement. If anything there are less cops on the Gulf Road now then there have ever been.

Note: Yes I took this picture on the Gulf Road

Turns out when it comes to “Nation Branding”, Kuwait for some odd reason scores really well… like really well. Out of 236 countries, Kuwait came in 13th place for Q3 of the 2011 Brand Perception Index. And it’s not a one time fluke, I checked the 2010 index and Kuwait actually came in 6th place overall last year! I think that’s great but honestly I don’t understand how.

Norway for example is currently at the bottom of the list in 236th place… right behind Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. Pretty weird, I mean they had the bombing incident and the shooting but 236? Here is how they rank the countries:

Our indexes rank all countries and territories based on how they are perceived in leading international media, published quarterly and annually. The indexes are based on analyzing millions of mentions in hundreds of thousands of news articles.

For the full list click [Here]

via BlogBaladi

Haven’t seen much Christmas decorations in Kuwait yet this year. Ted Baker had the cool Marilyn Monroe Santa last year but this year they’ve replaced it with a tacky looking banner. I spotted the Christmas tree above at Alraya Mall which is pretty cool (and big). Cartier in Salhiya also has some decorations up but other than those three I haven’t really seen anything else.

I got a sneak peek at ubon awhile ago and the place looks amazing. It’s very tastefully done with a mixture of black burnt wood and concrete. I spoke to the owner while there and he told me they’re going to be playing mostly modern jazz which will suit the place a lot. It’s easily easily going to be the coolest looking Thai food place in Kuwait.