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Michael Moore Plans Free Net-Only Film Premiere

With the US Election only weeks away now, Michael Moore has chosen the right time to release his new documentary titled “Slacker Uprising“.

His plans are to premiere it exclusively on the internet for free, on September 23rd, hosted on Blip.TV.
This will be followed by a DVD which will be available through Amazon.com and Netflix on October 7th.

The movie documents Moore’s 62-city tour through swing states during the 2004 U.S. presidential election to rally young voters.

Moore hopes “Slacker Uprising” will help spur young people to vote this November. After more than 20 million 18- to 29-year-olds cast ballots in 2004 (an 11 percent increase from 2000), he’s hoping even greater numbers of “slackers” vote this year.

Moore said “Slacker Uprising” cost about $2 million to make and that he will end up paying about $1 million out of his pocket. Neither he nor the distributor, Brave New Films, plans to profit from the release.

To receive the download, people can sign up at SlackerUprising.com.

The trailer can be viewed on YouTube here: Slacker Uprising Trailer.

Abu Dhabi Media Company Sets Eyes On Hollywood

Interesting news from the Abu Dhabi Media Company today…

Abu Dhabi Media Company today announced the formation of a new company that will develop, finance and produce content for both the global and Arabic language markets. Imagenation Abu Dhabi, a wholly owned subsidiary, intends to spend in excess of US$1 billion over the course of the next five years in the creation of both full length feature films and digital content.

From its base in Abu Dhabi, Imagenation Abu Dhabi will enter into partnerships with high-profile US-based and other international producers to develop and produce content for distribution throughout the world. The company’s remit also extends to supporting Middle East filmmakers and Arabian film production.

[…]

Edward Borgerding, CEO of Imagenation Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi Media Company, said: “With Imagenation Abu Dhabi, we are bringing Hollywood and the international production community to Arabia. Our aim is to make award-winning films which are commercially successful and appeal to audiences across the world.

“Our target output of eight films every year will make imagenation abu dhabi one of the world’s top producers of feature films and establish Abu Dhabi as a leading centre for content creation,” said Borgerding.

[Source: BI-ME]

Hopefully the movies they’ll be producing will indirectly help pass on a more positive image about Arabs and Muslims, and break the negative stereotypes we see in hollywood movies these days.

Google Chrome, Google’s New Open Source Browser Has Landed

The buzz in the online world these past 24 hours or so have all been around Google’s new open source web browser, under the name of Google Chrome.

There have been rumors about a Google browser for ages now, with people suspecting it will be called GBrowser, or simply Google Browser; but those rumors never materialized until yesterday when Google “accidentally” let slip some comics presenting the new browser; and then followed up with a blog post, announcing a beta would be released today.

I went through the comic book talking about the product’s details and I think it is a great way to present the product and I recommend that anyone interested check it out here.

The beta was officially released some minutes ago, and I got to download it and play around with it a bit, and I have to say I’m really impressed and loving it up to now.

It has a very clean and simplistic interface, maximizing the browsing area; and it is really fast.

The browser uses the WebKit rendering engine, the V8 JavaScript Virtual Machine, an optimized approach to tabs, a homepage presenting most visited websites, and a number of security and privacy options; in addition to other interesting features.

I think this is a really promising product from Google; and I can’t wait to see where they take it, and what it will do for web apps.

Ramadan Mubarak To Everyone

Today is the first day of the holy month of Ramadan in Tunisia and in most other Muslim countries (Libya and Nigeria started yesterday).

It’s a month of fasting, praying, reading the Koran and worship for some people; and a month of eating, sleeping, watching TV, and eating some more for others.

So to everyone, no matter what this month ahead means to them exactly, I’d like to wish you a blessed Ramadan; and may it be a happy and great month for you all.

Eleven Minutes (Paulo Coelho)

Another Paulo Coelho book that I’ve read recently and that I’ve been meaning to write about is ‘Eleven Minutes‘.

The book is pretty different from the other books I’ve read by Paulo Coelho, even though it is equally as great and enjoyable as a book, and inspiring in its own kind of way.

It starts with the sentence “Once upon a time, there was a prostitute called Maria”, and goes on to tell us the story of a woman’s journey from an innocent young girl who believed that she had squandered her only chance at love, to leaving her home to seek fame and fortune, to then finding herself stepping into the life of prostitution, to a woman who finally decides to open her heart again to allow “real” love in.

I didn’t know what to expect when I first started reading the book even though a number of my friends told me it was a very good book; but I was pleasantly surprised, and confirm what my friends told me; the story engages you, and carries you through it, as you follow the main character’s life, the events she goes through, and her perception of things.

I personally really enjoyed reading this book, and recommend it to everyone. It’s not meant to change your mind about prostitution, nor to give reasons or explanations; it’s just a story about one woman and her journey with love.

This Modern Life

[Via: Knuttz]

Arabic Version Of StartUpArabia Officially Launched

One of the points many people asked for after the official launch of StartUpArabia back in April is an Arabic version, insisting on how important they thought it was.

I couldn’t agree more, and it was always one of the main points in my plans for StartUpArabia; and so my answer was always that it was currently underway and that it would be ready soon enough.

Well that soon enough is now, and the Arabic version of StartUpArabia is officially launched here:
http://www.startuparabia.com/arabic/

There are a number of posts already available there that have been translated from the English version, and more of the older posts from the English version will be posted over time so that everyone who prefers Arabic can read them too. As for new articles and posts, they’ll mostly be posted on both English and Arabic versions of the site on the same day from now on.

I’m happy that this Arabic version is out now, mainly because it will widen the reach of the information about Arab startups, and also because I can now focus on the next side project for StartUpArabia, which should be coming soon too.

Last, but not least, I’d like to thank Eman Abu-Khadra, my wife, for her hard work with me on the Arabic version. If not for her help with the translation, this version wouldn’t exist now.

So, I leave you with: StartUpArabia – Arabic Version

Don’t hesitate to link to it and spread the word; I’d be really grateful.

Is That Your Son?

Last night, after some quick shopping at Geant (TunisCity’s hyper market), just after paying, putting everything back into the cart, and seating Adam in the cart’s child seat; a security guy came up to me, pointed at some point behind me and asked if the boy he was pointing at was my son.

What was really weird is that I actually turned around, looked at the boy and then replied that he wasn’t my son.

As I was saying the words, I realized how stupid and absent-minded that all was; I mean, I just seated my only son in the cart in front of me, but then there I was looking behind me to see if some other kid was my son.

Eman laughed her head off at me, joking that I must have some hidden secret.

All I could think of is “Damn, I really need that vacation!”

Southern Fried Chicken Opens In Al Nasr 2

This past weekend we discovered and tried out a new fast food place called Southern Fried Chicken on the Hedi Nouria road in Al Nasr 2.

I had passed in front of the place a few weeks ago, and it was still not open yet, and thought I’d check back on it when it was open, and this weekend we did and went in and tried it, twice.

Southern Fried Chicken (SFC) is as its name suggests a fast food restaurant mainly specializing in chicken meals, à la KFC for those who have had the pleasure.

SFC is a UK food franchise, and now that I come to think of it, I think I saw a couple of SFC restaurants in the UK before, but never got around to trying their food.

I really liked the setting and decor, the food is pretty good and the prices are quite ok too. I tried two menus up to now, one consisting of pieces of chicken and the other a chicken burger, and they both were good.

I hope we see other international food chains and franchises opening up in Tunisia soon. And please, if you’re one of those people who are thinking of commenting right now to tell me that we don’t want that kind of internationalization, and that you’d rather stick to lablabi and kaftaji, or that they’re unhealthy, you can spare yourself the effort, I’ve heard it all on several previous posts, and I respectfully disagree.

I love lablabi, I love kaftaji, I love a good s’han tounsi, …etc; But I also love a good burger every once in a while, some nicely cooked chicken every other while, or a yummy stuffed crust pizza some other times, …etc.
It’s up to me to take care of my health and choose when to go eat at these places and how often. I demand my freedom to eat whatever I choose 😛

Anyway, SFC is worth checking out for those who are fast food fans like me. They claim it has a lip licking flavour, which falls a bit short from KFC’s finger lickin’ goodness, but well, worth the try.

Mozzarella’s Open Sauce Browser In Tunis Hebdo Newspaper

Today’s Tunis Hebdo newspaper has the following bit of “interesting” news in it:

La fondation Mozzarella veut faire entrer son navigateur Open Sauce Firefox 3 dans le Livre Guinness des Records…

Which in English means:

The Mozzarella foundation wants to enter its Open Sauce browser Firefox 3 in the Guinness book of records…

Neat, huh? So yeah, it’s Internet meets Pizza. The guy must’ve been hungry while writing the article.

But it doesn’t stop there, this article is actually a rip-off from another website, the content is basically copy-pasted.

So they’re not only guilty of stupidity, but also of plagiarism at the same time.

Certainly makes a person proud of the high level of journalistic professionalism available in the country.

Of course what they really wanted to talk about what was the Mozilla foundation asking fans of their Firefox browser to download Firefox 3 when it’s released so that they can break the record of most downloaded software in a day and get into the Guinness book of records.
Now would it have been so hard for them to check their facts and write a correct mini-article about this?
What a shame!

[Via: Montassar]