Search: “sti”

Has anyone ever survived a water landing by donning a vest or using a raft? An interesting short article I read yesterday. [Link]

The Forbes list is out and its interesting to see Kuwait and Lebanon both on the list although to be honest I was expecting more Kuwaitis on the list:

Rank 52
Nasser Al-Kharafi & family (Kuwait)
Worth 11.5 billion Dollars

Rank 407
Najib Mikati (Lebanon)
Worth 2.3 billion Dollars

Rank 407
Taha Mikati (Lebanon)
Worth 2.3 billion Dollars

Rank 618
Bassam Alghanim (Kuwait)
Worth 1.6 billion Dollars

Rank 618
Kutayba Alghanim (Kuwait)
Worth 1.6 billion Dollars

Rank 618
Fahd Hariri (Lebanon)
Worth 1.6 billion Dollars

Rank 717
Mohamed Al-Bahar (Kuwait)
Worth 1.4 billion Dollars

Rank 891
Nazek Hariri (Lebanon)
Worth 1 billion Dollars

For the full list of billionaires click [Here]

Thanks cajie

I found this old ShowBiz Pizza Place promo from 1983. Anyone who has been to ShowBiz (or Chucky Cheese) should find this interesting. [Link]

I’ve been blasting Do you love me? all morning at the office, I think everyone is addicted to it now. Here is another classic song which they used play a lot on KTV, its by Abdel Moneim Madbouly. [Song]

I just found this old article from TIME Magazine that was written after alcohol was banned in Kuwait:

A month ago the oil-rich sheikdom of Kuwait banned all liquor within its borders, and since then many of its thirsty citizens have been drinking everything in sight from perfume and eau de cologne to rubbing alcohol and Sterno — with predictably disastrous results. By last week, an estimated 150 Kuwaiti had died from alcohol poisoning, several hundred more had been blinded, and Kuwait’s hospitals were filled to overflowing. Bathtub gin is flourishing, and bootlegging the real thing has become Kuwait’s fastest growing business. A fifth of Dewar’s White Label Scotch now commands a sheik’s ransom of $50 on the black market.

Prohibition came to Kuwait as deviously as an Arab horse trade. In theory only Christian residents of the predominantly Moslem nation could drink, using ration cards to obtain whisky through London’s Gray Mackenzie & Co. Ltd., which has had an import monopoly on Kuwait’s liquor flow for decades. In fact, Moslems imbibed increasingly, and drunken-driving fatalities mounted apace. The nation’s stricter religious leaders then teamed up with local merchants who resented Gray Mackenzie’s lucrative monopoly to introduce a prohibition bill in the Kuwaiti Assembly. With voting a matter of public record in the tiny Moslem land, the bill passed easily, despite its manifest unpopularity and whatever the legislators’ private lapses from the temperance of Mohammed’s grace might be.

Gray Mackenzie padlocked its doors, and the poisoning cases began to stagger in as sales of after-shave lotions and cologne soared tenfold. Several dozen British and American petroleum engineers served notice that they would not renew their employment contracts if Kuwait stayed dry. Several influential Kuwaitis have applied to remote countries for posts as honorary consuls, hoping thereby to qualify for diplomatic liquor privileges. Many of the thirsty began flocking to Basra in Iraq, 100 miles from Kuwait City. Their pilgrimage has also produced agitation for repeal of the law from their weekend widows left behind. They fear that the forced-draft drinking by the boys and the wiles of the women of Basra may prove a dangerously combustible mix.

TIME Magazine – Friday, Jan. 22, 1965

Wow Kuwaitism just posted the coolest music video ever made in Kuwait. The video was recorded in 1978 back when alcohol was still legal and when the sea was actually visible while driving down the Gulf Road. Its an English music video called Do You Love Me? and its by the Bendaly Family.

Kuwaitism also has another video linked and more info so check out his post [Here] Also the guy who put the video on YouTube has a ton more vintage music videos which you can also check out by clicking [Here]

update: I asked my mum if she knew a group called Bendaly Family since she was in Kuwait back then and she told me she did and it turns out I do to. They are a Lebanese band and their daughter Remi Bendaly later went solo and was pretty famous. According to my mum back in around 1985 or 1986 I actually attended a Bendaly Family concert here in Kuwait and got to sit front row. The concert was held in Shaab Park which was an open area back then. The Showbiz owner back then George Karam brought the Bendaly Family to Kuwait.

I just found out Bershka is opening in The Avenues on March 13th. I am not a big fan of Bershka, Nat is, but the interesting thing to note here is the opening date. If Bershka is opening on the 13th then I am guessing The Avenues is opening either before or on that same day.

update: Launch pushed back till the 18th.

Yesterday night Tristar came and picked up my bike so they could install my new slip-ons. While the bike was being put on the truck I realized I still haven’t come up with a name for the bike. So after some thinking I have decided to call my bike Starscream.

Nathans or Hardees, which of the two has the better chili dog?

THE NATHANS CHILI DOG

THE HARDEES CHILI DOG

PRICE
Nathans Chili Dog: 750 fils
Hardees Chili Dog: 500 fils

SIZE
Both Hardees and Nathans have similarly sized hot dogs. The Nathans is just slightly bigger but not by that much.

LOOKS
Hardees looks visually more attractive and colorful while the Nathans hot dog looks dull and stale.

SPEED
Nathans hot dogs take longer then Hardees to prepare. I ordered my hot dog from Nathans Souk Sharq then I went to Hardees ordered a hot dog, I picked it up and went back to Nathans and my hot dog was still not ready. Also while waiting at Nathans I had to stand there listening to the manager making fun out of people who pass him. He’s an idiot.

TASTE
Nathans Chili Dog: The chili is terrible and the onions tasteless. The hot dogs meat itself is tastier then the Hardees meat but everything else tasted bad. I even ordered a plain hot dog with just ketchup and mustard and I don’t know what ketchup they use but its one of the worst tasting ones I have ever tried. A real mess seriously.

Hardees Chili Dog: Although the actual hot dog itself tastes a bit better at Nathans, the chili used at Hardees is much better and the mustard and onions are also better tasting. Even the bread feels softer and fresher.

CONCLUSION
I believe the Hardees Chili Dog is a better hot dog overall. Firstly it costs 50% less then the Nathans one Nathans hot dog costs 50% more. Its also visually more attractive, quicker to order and in general is a better tasting hot dog. I would not have a Nathans hot dog again, not unless they get better ingredients.

I was waiting for Marzouq to post about this but he hasn’t still so I am going to post about it first… although it is HIS story.

Today I got an email from Marzouq and he sounded really pissed and depressed. He was vague in his email but it was something about losing a really important bid. I was like fuck, what was he bidding for? I figured something related to work, maybe he was trying to get the rights to Google Kuwait or some fast food chain or something. Anyway a few hours later he gives me a call.

We are talking and he tells me about this charity auction that took place in the US and how they were auctioning off a variety of items like electronics, snowmobiles etc.. I was thinking he probably tried bidding on a limited edition motorbike and he lost. Then he tells me that one of the items they were auctioning off was the chance to appear on an episode of 24 next season! Whoever won the auction would have a role on the show in season 7 and would also get to meet the whole cast and then leave with the episode script autographed by everyone. So I was like ok what happened??

Turns out he had a friend at the auction who was bidding in his place. He told his friend to bid max up to $10,000. Turns out though he had a tough competitor, some wife of a millionaire who according to Marzouqs friend came up to him and told him she wanted to have Jack Bauers babies. She kept bidding against him until past his $10,000 limit. In the end he increased his max bid till he hit around $16,000 but she kept bidding until in the end she won the auction for $21,000.

Its such an insane thing, imagine, a blogger from Kuwait would have been on 24. I would have been really jealous if he had won, but it sucks he didn’t. I know how much it would have meant to him being on the show. Anyway I think he is going to be pissed now because I posted about HIS experience before he did!

This reminds me of when King Abdullah appeared on Startrek.

update: Here is a link to Marzouqs post with more details! [Link]

Today I got a long rectangular box with a dozen cupcakes from a new place that opened up in Fanar called Juju’s Cupcake. All the cupcakes looked stunning and within seconds they disappeared. Everyone just wanted one. I don’t have any idea on the prices and although the box has a website address, jujuscupcake.com, the website is still not up. If you are interested though you can call them on 5722999.

Picture above taken by 7oO7oO

Just finished watching the first season of Dexter and it was really cool. The best part has to be the fact that the main actor is Michael Hall who played the gay brother on my favorite TV show, Six Feet Under. In Dexter he plays a Miami police forensics expert during the day but at night he is a serial killer who goes around killing criminals who he believes have escaped justice. Its such an incredible and very strange show, I so can’t wait for the second season.

A friend sent me a link to the wikipedia entry for the word “Paraphilia” with a simple instruction “You gotta check the list at the end”. So I scrolled down and I didn’t know what I was looking for until I found the strangest thing. Its the “List of paraphilias” with some really strange entries, here are some of my favorites:

Acousticophilia: sexual arousal from certain sounds
Aquaphilia: arousal from water and/or in watery environments, including bathtubs or swimming pools
Coprophilia: sexual attraction to (or pleasure from) feces
Emetophilia: sexual attraction to vomit
Gynophagia: sexual attraction toward eating woman (eating as in food)
Nasophilia: sexual attraction to the sight, touch of human noses
Retifism: sexual arousal from shoes
Sitophilia: sexual arousal from food
Spectrophilia: sexual attraction to ghosts

For the full and very enjoyable list click [Here]

As you probably noticed I have a new sponsor, Al Ghalia Group who are based in Bahrain. This means I now have a total of 5 banners on my blog which I won’t deny is a lot. I have tried my best not to clutter up the blog too much with banners and this is honestly the best I can do.

Like you I would rather this blog had no banners at all but the banners are there for a reason… they provide me with extra income. I understand these banners decrease the aesthetics of the blog but the money is actually pushing me to continue blogging.

Blogging daily is difficult, its a lot of pressure and it takes time. I currently try to post a minimum of 3 posts a day so I could remain consistent. If I didn’t have the income coming in from the banners I might have stopped blogging ages ago or at least I would have stopped posting as often.

Now money usually is not a comfortable subject to discuss but this is a blog and I think its important for me to be as open as I can with my readers.

How much money am I making? Well I have decided to share with everyone a PDF file I send to people who request information on advertising on the blog. Its my rate card and you can download it by clicking [Here]. I wasn’t sure if I should make this information public or not but I figured if I was a reader I would be curious to know how much money this blog is making the same way I am curious to know how much money engadet or digg make. Well as you can see from the rate card this blog is currently making nearly $3000 a month. This is a good chunk of cash and I hope now everyone understands why I have so many banners here.

I have not sold out. Just because I am making money from the blog doesn’t mean I have sold out. All I am doing is cashing in on my 15 minutes of fame. When something sucks I will still say it sucks and when something is good I will still say its good.

Anyway it feels awkward sharing this information but I hope everyone especially my long time readers understand the reason for all these banners. Thank you!

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update: If anyone has any questions you can ask by leaving a comment below and I will reply to it.

One reader, Biohazard asked an important question which is Can I bash a sponsors product? The answer is simply no. When Alghanim Automotive were my sponsors I told them that if a cars they lent me to test drive sucked then I would post negative stuff about it. So what they did was just lend me their best cars. Now though what I do is tell my sponsors that if they lend me a product to try out and it turns out to suck I will just not mention the product at all. This way they aren’t afraid to send me more stuff to try out.

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update 2: I changed the location of the new banner because of complaints. If you prefer the new location over the previous one please leave a comment below. In case you missed it here is a screen shot of the previous location. [Screen Shot]

I just got the following SMS from my sister who I’m guessing is inside Avenues:

Avenues has what is acclaimed to be the sexiest Starbucks in the world. Even the name and logo are in silver, not green. The walls are also dark gray granite.

Sounds cool. I am going to google now and see if there is anything like this anywhere else in the world. Avenues is still not open to the public.