spent my Saturday afternoon in a soundbooth scripting, recording, and editing a radio spot with the ArabNet Team – fun stuff!
tags: arabnet, conference, lebanon, beirut, habtoor, internet, web business, aramex, google, lebanese, #arabnetme, radio spot, audio, sound, recording
So they’re giving away a Yellow Fiat 500 for the best “yellow themed” photograph taken in City Mall by the end of March 8 2010!
What are you waiting for… oh, and Yellow’s my favorite color!
tags: yellow car, yellow, pikasso, city mall, citymall, leo burnett, lebanon, lebanese, competition, photography, win the yellow
It was great to see so many (hungry) friends supporting TOUFOULA’s fundraising lunch at Tawleh!
Thanks everyone for helping TOUFOULA make a difference!
Tags: Lebanon, Toufoula, Maxime Chaya, Nabil Chaya, Karim Chaya, Caline Chaya, Lebanese, cancer, kids, children, civil society, ngo, lunch, Tawleh, restaurant, Gemmayze, Mar Mikhael, Beirut, Achrafieh
Just received this message from Maxime:
Even if the Chaya Bros. sounds like Adventure, Restaurants, Finances and Industrial Design… it can be something even better! This family can sure cook, especially when it’s for a good cause!
The four siblings: Maxime, Caline, Nabil & Karim are all rolling-up their sleeves this Friday to cook for you!
On the menu: Daube, chicken with sumac, roasted fennel tar, and much more!
All from the heart, and at Tawlet (Souk el Tayeb) in Mar Mikhael.
Buffet at 50 $ (instead of 25 $) as a fund-raiser for TOUFOULA (toufoula.org)
what a show it will be!
tags: toufoula, lebanon, beirut, tawleh, souk el tayib, mar mikhael, gemmayze, lebanese, maxime chaya, nabil chaya, karim chaya, caline chaya, dinner, fundraising
DISCLAIMER: this blog post compares reality to virtual reality, from a purely anthropological perspective: Do people behave differently in virtual communities? This blog post is NOT about the election results! Please keep it civil in the comments section (we don’t delete comments)
In preparation for the upcoming Municipal Elections in Lebanon, the Lebanese Twitter community has chosen to elect its own Mayor… And yes, as you can imagine, even in a virtual community of loosely coupled individuals, there’s elections drama, tension, ballot stuffing, et al. Perhaps we are incapable of being civil, let alone elect intelligently and conscientiously?
Yes We Tweet! Vote for @Samerkaram
My pledges:
– Lower taxation on Tweets
– Implement a Tweet Stimulus package to encourage more Tweeting
– Invest in renewable energy Tweets for a greener Earth
– Close down Tweetanamo
– Fund the No Tweet Left Behind initiative
how about posting more frequently on Blogging Beirut?
Polls have Closed: If you’re trying to make sense of the total number of votes (350), which is more than the entire Lebanese Twitter community, here’s what happened:
Whilst observing the voting I noticed the following:
– Initially the vote tied at 50/50
– Then overnight the other candidate gained a 4% lead
– The following day, the vote tied again at 50/50
– And again overnight the other candidate gained a 4% lead
– etc.
What’s interesting about these numbers is that in order to maintain the 4% lead, the other candidate had to increase votes ?exponentially? with every tie, as the total number of votes was growing (4% of 100 is less than 4% of 200). This meant that in the last 4% round, the other candidate acquired 30 votes overnight! Something smells fishy 😉
Twitter mimics Reality! Even in the virtual world, our elections ethics are lacking.
DISCLAIMER: this blog post compares reality to virtual reality, from a purely anthropological perspective: Do people behave differently in virtual communities? This blog post is NOT about the election results! Please keep it civil in the comments section (we don’t delete comments)
tags: beirut, lebanon, yes we tweet, twtpoll, @samerkaram, @sdarine, mayor of the lebanese tweeple, humor, funny, elections
Photo courtesy of Clément Tannouri – www.clementtannouri.com
tags: lebanon, faraya, kfardebian, aerial, photo, picture, pic, photograph, lebanese, mount lebanon, snow, back country, skiing, patrouille des cedres, pdc, photography, maxime chaya
(UPDATED with 10 more photos!)
Maxime Chaya spent the whole of Sunday plotting the route for the upcoming Patrouille des Cedres
below are some photos captured along the path – notice the baby Lebanese Cedars, planted in 1977!
the next few days are going to be even colder…
It’s not uncommon to stumble into a Lebanese whilst skiing on the French Alps…
Continue reading “Skiing into a Lebanese on the French Alps”
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UPDATE: Lebanese website buckling under pressure of #ET409 traffic – Government websites included.
UPDATE: President – this does not appear to be a terrorism incident
UPDATE: President – we will not call off rescue before 48 hours
UPDATE: President and Defense Minister press conference! photo link
UPDATE: List of passengers in Arabic w/ dates of birth http://is.gd/6YPc9
UPDATE: Fares, al-Qazan, Issawi, Ismail, Hawilla, Tajeddine, Barakat, al-Laqiss, Madani, Akoush, Asal, al-Basha, al-Farran, al-Haj, al-Haraki, Farhat, Hajal, Qarnakout, Misto, Jaber, Qassarji, al-Hayek and two from Zahra family.
UPDATE: children in flight roster 🙁
UPDATE: 2 casualties located (unconfirmed)
UPDATE: no survivors / casualties located as of yet
UPDATE: #ET409 was at 2500 meter altitude
UPDATE: #ET409 Real-Time updates #Firehose #ET409 Firehose
UPDATE: weather forecast not looking good Weather Forecast
UPDATE: the VIP Lounge at the Beirut International Airport is open to all families of passengers on #ET409
UPDATE: UN & Lebanese Army helicopters & naval vessels participating in rescue effort
UPDATE: 7 survivors reportedly found by Lebanese Army
UPDATE: Crash location, off the coast of Damour (Lebanon) between Saida and Beirut (1.5 KM from the coast)
An Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane with 92 people on board has crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after take-off from Beirut airport.
Eyewitnesses say they saw a ball of fire in the sky before the jet, which was was bound for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, crashed into the sea.
Wreckage from the plane has reportedly been seen off the Lebanese coast.
About 50 of the passengers on board were said to be Lebanese nationals, and most of the rest were Ethiopian.
The plane, believed to be a Boeing 737, is said to have disappeared from radar screens some five minutes after take-off in stormy weather at about 0200 local time.
The BBC’s Natalia Antelava, in Beirut, reports that the Lebanese transport minister and other officials say a rescue operation is now under way, but it is not clear if there are any survivors.
Thousands of Ethiopians are employed as domestic helpers in Lebanon.
Ethiopian Airlines operates a regular flight between Addis Ababa from Beirut.
(source BBC NEWS)
tags: #ET409 , Lebanon, Beirut, Ethiopian Airlines, crash, air disaster, airline, January 2010, Lebanese Army, rescue, takeoff
More Stalactite / Stalagmite sculptures in the backyard!
All ready to be placed on their specially designed concrete stands!
Surely that would jack-up the price of the apartments!
Hope this doesn’t become a bad habit 🙁 like so many other unpunished ones here…
The flooded streets of Beirut have people considering amphibious vehicles for transport!
tags: beirut, lebanon, flood, rain, amphibious, car, boat, photo, pic, image, funny, humor
In 2007, during Studio Beirut, a Dutch/Lebanese workshop held in Beirut on the theme of public space in Lebanon, we got to meet Ole Møystad (STUDIOhp), who presented this idea of connecting the entire Lebanese coast in only 2 hours and a half by water. Creating this common interest could generate a common space, a deap issue in such a segregated country.
We proposed to push the idea further for our Master thesis at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPF-L / ETH-L), with Ole as an external expert. At that point we had to choose a team for the development of our project. Here came Dieter Dietz, our main teacher from whom we learned innumerable things through his conceptual approaches, his sensitivity to such topics and his ability to treat coherently every scale of a building. Also part of this project was the architect Christian Gilot. With his awareness of urbanity and perception, he was of great help when it came to work on relations between things and distances. Finally, Ralph Blattler who was the most present, a great assistant but mostly a devoted architect with a clear vision, helping us sort out between infinite options.
Conceptually, this is how ELHUB was born and developed.
On a more personal and general level, ELHUB embodies and tries to respond to two related frustrations.
AMIDEAST/Lebanon is pleased to announce the 5th recruitment of students and
young professionals for CISCO internships. These internships are offered as
part of Cisco’s commitment to the Partnership for Lebanon which aims to help
Lebanon with education and workforce training, stimulating private sector
development, increasing employment opportunities, and building the country’s
technology infrastructure.
The focus of this cohort of 27 interns is to provide work experience to
young graduates in the fields of engineering, computer science and business
by giving them the chance to be trained for 11 months in CISCO Lebanon or
for 6 months in CISCO headquarters in San Jose, California.
Faraya January 2006
Faraya January 2007
Faraya January 2008
Faraya January 2009
Faraya January 2010
some things you only see in Lebanon,
take for example this girl ‘straightening’ her hair in the ABC Achrafieh ladies room – yes, with a flat iron plugged into the wall!
i had a quick chat with her, during which i learnt that she had a valid excuse for the absurdity of her situation – no i wont go into details – but this begs the question, “Is it pure coincidence that she just happened to be carrying a flat iron at the right time, or are we just going overboard with appearances, unwilling to be ungroomed for the slightest moment?”
tags: beirut, lebanon, lebanese, girl, lady, toilet, bathroom, hair salon, flat iron, straightening iron, abc, achrafieh, mall, department store, absurd, only in lebanon, photo, image, picture, ladies room
