Search: “cop”

What losers! [Link]

So you see the above Think Pink advert and you don’t think much but then you see the below Think Fruit advert and it’s like wait a second!

The funny part is they are both located next to each other. The Think Fruit is for Masafi while the Think Pink is for Sweet’N Low.

Thanks Anas!

I was surfing the web last week at work when I fell upon a visual that looked familiar. I was sure that I had seen it before and only when I got home I realized where. The cover on the left is from Bazaar’s 2006 dining guide. The artwork on the right was originally designed and illustrated by a designer called Bo Lundberg.

I emailed Bo Lundberg to find out if he had given Bazaar permission to use his design for their cover and according to him he didn’t, the visual was copied from him and Bazaar never contacted him.

Check out Bo Lundberg’s work by visiting his website. [Link]

I was at Gulf Bank today morning cashing a cheque when I noticed Gulf Bank’s Freedom Account logo. Its nearly a duplicate of MTC’s older distributors logo.

Someone just sent me this link which shows a Kuwaiti cop dancing with a bottle of whisky in his hand. Notice how many topics involving alcohol this week? It must be a sign. [Video]

update: here is a link to another older video of a girl dressed in a copy uniform and dancing. [Link]

update 2: it seems Iraqi police can do it better (thanks moayad) [Video]

Found this cool video of Neo (from the Matrix) fighting against Robocop. [Video] It kinda reminds me of Batman: Dead End which is Batman fighting against Alien and Predator. [Video]

I am looking for “The Copy Book”. If by any chance someone has a copy they want to sell then please leave a comment below. ISBN: 2880465931

I always wanted to know how David Copperfield did his trick and I just found a site that shows you how. Watch this video first of his famous flying trick [Video] then check out this site for details on how he did it. [Link]

[source digg]

This is a cool video showing a cop getting attacked by a dog (looks like a Rottweiler) and then his partner uses a taser to get the dog to back off. I am surprised the taser didn’t kill it. [Link]

This is just a preview of what might end up being on Miskan tonight. On my way back from a meeting with a client I witnessed a police SUV run a car off the road. They seemed very pissed at the driver. Ofcourse I had my camera with me and I took pictures. If nothing better comes along I will use one of those pictures for my picture of the day.

The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) recently opened the first phase of its Eco Park project, a government initiative aimed at supporting urban greening and promoting sustainability in Kuwait. The Eco Park focuses on improving green spaces in urban areas while also supporting research related to desert development and urban planning.

The park officially opened earlier in the month but I kept postponing my visit because of the weather. But, on Friday when I saw the sun was out I decided to pass by and check the park out and take some photos.

It’s fairly big, depending on what you’re comparing it to. It’s much smaller than Shaheed Park and Shuwaikh Park, but bigger and more interesting than most neighborhood parks.

When you first walk in, you’re greeted with a list of rules, including a no pets allowed notice. I’m actually fine with that. I walk my dog in that area and although I always pick up after him, I know a lot of people don’t. I’d rather have a dog free park than constantly worrying about stepping in poop. Inside the park there are plants and flowers everywhere (but no grass), and two artificial lakes, one large open air lake and a smaller shaded one. On the other end of the park is a large open space that looks like it could be used to host events or activities like yoga sessions or outdoor workouts. There’s also a pathway marked with no entry signs that leads toward the second phase of the park.

I couldn’t find the park’s opening hours listed anywhere, and I didn’t see any security or staff on site to ask about the timings. I reached out to KISR on Thursday to check, but I haven’t heard back yet. That said, I drive by the park daily and haven’t seen the gate closed so far.

If you want to pass by, the park is in Salmiya, facing the Gulf Road, in front of the Cliffs Tower and just before Dar Hamad. Here is the location on Google Maps.

Update: KISR replied, the opening hours are Sat to Wed 6am–6pm and Thu to Sat 6am–9pm

Yesterday I shared a video called Kuwait Nights 1984 created by Faisal Alrajhi and instantly fell in love with it. He created the video using AI, so after sharing his post on my story I got in touch with him to see if he could share his process with my readers.

Due to the length of his project he couldn’t share the full breakdown, so instead we decided to focus on one of my favorite scenes, the Green Island sequence.

Step 1 – Creating the visuals

The first thing Faisal did was create a custom prompt on Google Gemini:

“Create an 8-bit pixel-art scene of Kuwaiti people relaxing, sitting on benches, and walking inside Green Island. Show the iconic tower in the background, kids running in the distance, and palm trees lining the walkways. Use retro warm tones and subtle pixel shading.”

For the pixel-art images, he used the Google Gemini app along with Freepik’s Nano Banana feature. Freepik gave him higher-resolution results, which made a big difference when putting everything together into a video. He also added reference photos he found on Google, like shots of Green Island, to help the AI recreate the scenes more accurately.

Once he had all the images generated, he did some light touch-ups in Photoshop to clean things up, fix small details, and remove anything the AI added that didn’t belong.

Step 2 – Converting stills to animation

Once he had a scene he liked, Faisal then animated the images using an image-to-video AI tool from Freepik.

Step 3 – Creating the soundtrack

For the music Faisal used the AI music generator Suno. He gave Suno 30 seconds of the original song he wanted to use then used the following prompt to convert it into an 8-bit video-game style soundtrack:

“A playful 8-bit track opens with bright, pulsating chiptune synths and a bouncy, syncopated square wave melody. Driving 8-bit percussion interlocks with rapid arpeggios, playful sound effects, and simple bass, keeping the energy high. Short bridge introduces quirky glitch textures.”

Step 4 – Combining the scenes

The final step was putting everything together, he used Final Cut Pro.

So in case you want to replicate this video style, just follow steps 1 and 2 over and over for the different scenes and then combine them using a video editor.

When I posted this on Instagram, someone people left comments hating on the fact AI was used to create this. I think there is a huge misconception or naivety on how difficult and even impossible it would be to create a video like this without AI. One follower left a comment saying that Faisal should have instead “learn how to do pixel art and write music” as if it’s something someone can do by watching a YouTube video and not requiring any talent. I think that comment is actually more insulting to artists than him using AI to create this video. But even if Faisal was a pixel artists, it wouldn’t necessarily also mean he would know how to animate or compose music. Even if he did, the process of creating something like this would have taken months. Hiring a team to create a video like this especially when it’s something just for fun is also not realistic or feasible. AI has its issues, but in this instance it’s allowed someone to create something that wouldn’t be possible without the use of AI.

Make sure to check out Faisal’s Instagram account, he posts a lot of cool tech videos and they’re always informative. @f_alrajhii

Galaxy Juice just dropped a new three-track EP called Give It Over, their first release since the single Only Time. According to the band, this EP took nearly a year to put together because they pushed deep into production, sound design, and the overall concept.

They’ve shared with me the YouTube link to the track which I’ve embeded on top but you can listed to the full EP on Bandcamp right now with Spotify and other platforms coming soon.

If you want to check out my previous posts on Galaxy Juice, click here.

This past weekend Al Andalus revealed The Petal Pavilion, their new pop-up kiosk located at the center of their plaza. I’m currently halfway across the world on vacation, but they sent over photos of the project for me to share.

The Petal Pavilion was originally designed as a functional oyster bar by the Copenhagen-based studio @lasovskyjohansson for an art fair in Denmark a few years ago. The design won many awards and a version of that pavilion stands at the Design Museum Denmark, serving as a permanent café installation.

What’s cool is that this isn’t a copy of that design, Al Andalus actually worked with the original architects to reinterpret their award-winning concept to meet their specific requirements and adapt it to our unique weather. The result is this new 6.5-meter-tall kiosk where the petal folds open and blooms during the day, casting shadows below, but as daylight fades, the pavilion’s surfaces come alive with colored linear lighting.

The Petal will be hosting different pop-ups throughout the year with the first being @boostcafe from November 6 to December 31 followed by @kello.kw in January.

I’ve posted about UFO sightings in Kuwait in the late 70s twice on the blog, first time back in 2013 and then again in 2021. Recently, I found out (via @thevenerablebetty) that Kuwait was also featured in the 1979 summer edition of UFO Update! magazine, and I managed to get a copy of it.

The article was written by an executive from an American oil company who was in Kuwait on business. While driving out to one of the oil fields, he spotted a strange aircraft, and the piece details what he experienced and saw. He wasn’t the only eyewitness that night.

I’ve also uploaded additional clippings as a bonus read. These were declassified by the US State Department and include US embassy wires along with statements from KOC officials, KISR, and even the Ministry of Interior, who investigated a report by a Kuwait Airways pilot who had spotted an “unusual light phenomenon.”

I used to be a huge UFO buff, so I always find these stories interesting. Even if you don’t believe in UFOs, they’re still fun to read. I’ve uploaded everything to my Flickr and you can check them out there.