Year: 2004

Colonel Queen Rania

Queen Rania of Jordan has been granted the honorary rank of full colonel in the country’s armed forces.

Her husband King Abdullah also made his Palestinian-born wife head of the Queen Rania Society for the Support of the Military and their Families.

In March, Rania launched a media campaign to change women’s stereotypes and boost their role in Arab society.

[Source: BBC]

This is really interesting and I think is meant as part of the campaign to change women’s stereotypes and to advance woman’s rights even further in Jordan.
I think it’s great.

I’ve always admired Queen Rania for the hard work she does and her commitment to addressing really important issues.
Plus she’s the best looking Jordanian queen in the history of the country.

I got to know a lot about her and her work while working on her official website when I was back in Jordan, and even though there were a number of tight deadlines and late nights spent working on that project, it was truly an honour for me.

Gollum Goes Apes

Andy Serkis, the man behind the popular Gollum character from the “Lord of the Rings” films, is reuniting with Peter Jackson to become the man behind the monster in Universal Pictures’ “King Kong,” the director’s retelling of the 1933 classic.

Like he did for Gollum, Serkis will provide motion capture reference for the character of Kong, who will eventually be realized as a completely computer-generated creature.

Serkis also has been cast as Lumpy the cook, a member of the crew of the Venture, the tramp steamer that sails to Skull Island.

[More: CNN]

Andy Serkis did a great job on Gollum, and I can’t wait to see how King Kong will turn out.
I’m sure Peter Jackson will make a great movie out of it and that Serkis will be part of the creation of a perfect King Kong.

Ah, Cinema magic…

No Sex Before Games, Please

Germany’s team doctor has advised players not to have sex shortly before Euro 2004 games and drink plenty of water instead.

Team doctor Tim Meyer says sex immediately before games should be avoided because of the physical and emotional strain involved.

“Drink, drink, drink” is what the players should do, he said.

[Source: Reuters]

Yeaaaaaahhhhh!
The only thing better than sex is a drink of water, it takes you to another level of satisfaction.
Whatever!
I’d definitely choose sex…

Ray Charles RIP

Ray Charles, the genius soul, blues and gospel singer has died at the age of 73 in Beverly Hills, California.

The cause of his death is complications from liver disease.

It’s a real loss to the music world. Ray Charles awed us all with his great music, endless talent and his strong will.

I remember listening to Ray Charles ever since I was a kid, as my dad is a fan of his, and growing up to fall in love with his music too.
His songs will remain engraved in every music lover’s mind and in the history of world music.
Hits like “Georgia On My Mind” and “Hit the Road, Jack” will never be forgotten.

Ray Charles will live on through his beautiful music.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

I just finished reading Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell yesterday afternoon, and WOW, that was one hell of a read.

It’s one of those books that suck you in to them and paint the world and the images all around you, where you and the main character become one and live the story together.
I truly loved reading it.

Big Brother, Thought Police, NewSpeak, Changing the past and the Ministries of Love, Peace and Plenty …etc.
There’s such a great attention to detail in this book, it simply makes you feel, see and live what the writer is talking about.

George Orwell’s anti-socialist and anti-communist feelings come through very strongly in this book, as they also did in Animal Farm.

The story was a futuristic one when it was written and still can be applied to our time too.
It touches upon so many issues and sheds light on worries we should have till this very day (especially about privacy).

I also think it could make a great movie. It has all the elements of a cool hollywood movie: Good story, suspense, love, hate, sex, betrayal, politics, sci fi, …etc.
It could even be a big blockbuster hit if someone like Spielberg took it and played around with it

Life Assessment Quiz

I just came across this Life Assessment Quiz called the Clean Sweep Program.

This program is a checklist of 100 items which, when completed, give one complete personal freedom. These 100 items are grouped in 4 areas of life with 25 in each group: Physical Environment, Well-being, Money and Relationships. These 4 areas are the cornerstone for a strong and healthy life and the program helps a person to clean up, restore and polish virtually every aspect of his/her life. The program takes between 6 – 24 months to complete.

It’s very interesting. I got a total of 34, which is among the average total first-time participants get.
And so, I have a lot of work to do to reach 100, and no time to waste.

[Via: Dive Into Mark]

Pringle Ads

Procter & Gamble, the manufacturer of Pringles chips has come up with an innovative process to place images and text on the surface of Pringles potato chips.

So now, an Ad can be passed to you on the chip before you crunch it away.

According to the press release, first up will be a promotion involving one of Hasbro’s popular board games, “Trivial Pursuit Junior.” Questions from that brand will be featured on the chips, along with the answers.

Hmmm…
Aren’t they taking advertising a bit too far here?!
I mean, advertising on food?
I think that’s a bit too much for my stomach to handle 😉

Bush Not Restricted by Torture Bans

President Bush, as commander-in-chief, is not restricted by U.S. and international laws barring torture, Bush administration lawyers stated in a March 2003 memorandum.

The 56-page memo to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cited the president’s “complete authority over the conduct of war,” overriding international treaties such as a global treaty banning torture, the Geneva Conventions and a U.S. federal law against torture.

“In order to respect the president’s inherent constitutional authority to manage a military campaign … (the prohibition against torture) must be construed as inapplicable to interrogations undertaken pursuant to his commander-in-chief authority,” stated the memo, obtained by Reuters on Tuesday.

[Source: Reuters]

So, now all that crap about international treaties, conventions and laws doesn’t apply to the United States because they get their orders from their President and well their President is simply untouchable and above any international law.

If this is not absurd, I don’t know what is!

Mid-East writers reach across divide

It is difficult for Israelis and Palestinians to find common ground – so difficult, in fact, that two prominent writers have retreated from the real world into the pages of a book to achieve it.

The book, Gaza Blues, is a collaboration between Samir el-Youssef, a Palestinian, and Israel’s Etgar Keret.

El-Youssef came up with the idea just over two years ago, during some of the worst violence of the current Palestinian intifada.

He called Keret, who said he liked the idea immediately.

“I wanted to do something, but ‘something’ is usually to sign a petition that you have already signed 500 times before. We wanted to make our own country, in a book if not on land,” Keret says.

The result is a disconcerting blend of razor-sharp short stories from Keret – one of Israel’s best-selling writers – and a meandering novella by el-Youssef, a writer and literary critic living in London.

Perhaps most startling, given the nature of the project, is that their work is not overtly political.

[Source: BBC]

I think ideas like this are great and very constructive. More and more people should think this way and try to bring peace and understanding through literature, art, music, theatre, …etc.
Politics has proven to be of no real use.