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The weather is pretty cozy right now with it not being too cold yet so it’s still a great time to catch the Cinemagic screenings next month. I’ve watched two of the movies they’re going to be showing, American Splendor and of course Akira. Both of them were really great and Akira honestly is a classic and a must watch if you haven’t already. Embarrassingly I’ve never watched Grease although I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing. Here is the January movie screenings list:

Thursday, January 5th at 7:30pm
AMERICAN SPLENDOR
An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.

Saturday, January 7th at 7:30pm
DON’T LOOK BACK
Documentary covering Bob Dylan’s 1965 tour of England, which includes appearances by Joan Baez and Donovan.

Thursday, January 12th at 7:30pm
THE DINNER GAME
Each week, Pierre and his friends organize what is called as “un dîner de cons”. Everyone brings the dumbest guy he could find as a guest. Pierre thinks his champ -François Pignon- will steal the show.

Saturday, January 14th at 7:30pm
THE GREAT DICTATOR
In Chaplin’s satire on Nazi Germany, dictator Adenoid Hynkel has a double… a poor Jewish barber… who one day is mistaken for Hynkel.

Thursday, January 19th at 7:30pm
THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED
Should Tom (Duris) make like his thuggish father or pursue his dream of becoming a pianist?

Saturday, January 21st at 7:30pm
THRONE OF BLOOD
A ruthlessly ambitious lord, egged on by his wife, works to fulfill a prophecy that he would become Emperor.

Thursday, January 26th at 7:30pm
GREASE
Good girl Sandy and greaser Danny fell in love over the summer. But when they unexpectedly discover they’re now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance?

Saturday, January 28th at 7:30pm
AKIRA
A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psionic psychopath that only two kids and a group of psionics can stop.

Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of film-making. Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. Entrance is free of charge and includes refreshments, popcorn and much more. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]

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]

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]

The only camera I have with me right now on my vacation is the iPhone 4S and so far it’s been pretty great. One advantage the iPhone (or any phone cam) has over a regular camera is the fact you can share the photos instantly, kinda like Polaroid’s. I’ve been posting a lot of photos on Instagram and I just found a way to share them with none Instragam users using a site called Extragram. So if you want to check out the photos I’ve been taking on my trip just click [Here]

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.

According to a reader Go Sport at Avenues are now selling MMA gear. They’re currently carrying two brands which are Venum and Bad boy. Personally, I’m still holding out for a store that carries TapOut and Affliction gear.

Thanks Omar

Architecture of Kuwait announced yesterday they will be tracing over old photos and turning them into 3D in order to visualize moments of that era. I think that’s a fantastic idea and one I’m looking forward to see. Not sure how far back in time they’re going but I’m guessing somewhere in the 50s and 60s. Check out their post on this project [Here]

Btw notice how much greener the city looked like in the picture above?

I can’t believe how time flew by so quickly this year. I still haven’t finished editing the pictures from last years Gulf Run and now GR7 is coming up next month. Tonight they had a small get together to introduce what’s new and different in this years Gulf Run. I’m not going to be able to join the guys in Bahrain this year but, I’ll still be covering all the events leading up to Bahrain and maybe even find a way to to cover Bahrain as well. For more information on what is Gulf Run you can visit their website [Here]

Back in September I posted about Brotips, a website that belongs to a young 16 year old Kuwaiti called Yousef Khraibut. Well Yousef emailed me awhile ago telling me Mark Cuban has invested in Brotips! How cool is that?! Mark Cuban if you don’t know is a business magnate and investor who also owns the NBA team Dallas Mavericks. That’s pretty freaking cool! Here is a link to an article on this deal at FastCompany. [Link]

There’s a comedy club opening soon in Kuwait (the first?) and it will be called “Live”. The comedy club will be located in the basement of Discovery Mall and will seat approximately 200 people. It was originally scheduled to open up before the end of the year but due to some delays the launch will now most likely be in January. They’ve already got a big name Arab American comedian booked for their launch so should be interesting to see. I’ll post more details once I get them.

I was supposed to start off the weekend by riding out with the Desert Bike Club but couldn’t get myself to wake up at 6:30 in the morning for a 7:15 meetup. But I still managed to save the day by heading down to Bnaider. A friend of mine built an RC track at his chalet so I took two cars, my Tamiya FJ CR-01 crawler, and my Xray 808e buggy.

[YouTube]

The video above should give you an idea about how fun these cars can be. Mine is the pink one that starts off strong and then falls behind.

I like this shot since it captures an interesting moment when 3 off us go airborne but each one heading off to a different direction.

These two aren’t RC cars but they’re still cool toys.

One of the guys brought cheesecake from Firin tonight to the diwaniya and it was pretty good. Like I had two slices good and it’s not even my cheat day. The only reason I actually ate it is because it was wheat free. And yes I’m still on my wheat free diet and I it’s been more than two weeks now.

I actually haven’t had any trouble staying off wheat. The only issue arises on my cheat day when I want to have dessert and end up with a lame chocolate bar from a supermarket because all my favorite desserts contain wheat. I also don’t feel more energetic or more focused like the book says I would feel. Or maybe I’m just not noticing. I don’t know will give this diet some more time and see.

Anyway all of Firin’s products are wheat free and you can check out their website [Here]

The new airport will be completed by 2016. That’s in 4 years time. [Link]

Digumz is helping KACCH (Kuwait Association for the Care of Children in Hospital) collect video games (PS3 & Xbox360) for children all around hospitals in Kuwait. The idea started on the United Nations Universal Children’s Day but they’ve now made some adjustments to their campaign to make it even easier for people to donate games. Here are the options available:

Option 1
If you have 5 or more games you would like to donate (used or new), you can call Digumz on 25733040 and they will come by and pick up the games from you. If you have less than 5 games you can still donate them but you need to drop it off yourself at their store in Salmiya.

Option 2
You can purchase games from the Digumz Online Store by using the coupon code UNCHILDREN. When you use that code you will automatically get a 10% discount and the games will be accepted as a donation for the children and held at the store with the rest of the donated games before being sent out to KACCH.

Note: The coupon code works on PS3 and Xbox360 games only since those are the two systems available to the children. Also, the coupon is entered at “Step 5” in the payment process. You need to enter the coupon if you want to donate the games.

Here is the link to the Digumz Online Store [Link]