Category: Here & There

Shelflife & Titanic Lamp

Charles Trevelyan Shelflife

Designer Charles Trevelyan introduced some new designs at 100% London and writes; “My main piece was the Shelflife shelving system, a large shelving unit or room divider that features a chair and table that can be pulled out from within the shelves. I also showed a lamp, Titanic, designed to appear to be sinking beneath the surface of the table.”

I personally love both of these designs, especially the shelflife shelving system. That would make a really cool bookcase.
Very creative.

[Via: Boing Boing, MoCo Loco]

Al-Jazeera Online in Japanese

Flamboyant Japanese internet tycoon turned politician Takafumi Horie has said he will bring Arab news broadcaster Aljazeera to Japan, hoping to provide a greater variety of views to the public.

The 32-year-old entrepreneur on Monday said his firm, Livedoor, which offers a portal site much like Yahoo! along with other internet services, has signed a deal with Qatar-based Aljazeera to distribute its news online in Japanese.

Horie, an unsuccessful candidate in last month’s parliamentary election, wrote on his blog that he was trying to diversify Livedoor’s news content.

I think it’s good that Al-Jazeera’s news will be reaching more people in the world, giving them another view of the events that take place in the Arab world.

I’m especially looking forward to their English news channel that should be launched soon.

President Bush Drinking Again

Faced with the biggest crisis of his political life, President Bush has hit the bottle again, The National Enquirer reveals.

Bush, who said he quit drinking the morning after his 40th birthday, has started boozing amid the Katrina catastrophe.

Bush is under the worst pressure of his two terms in office and his popularity is near an all-time low. The handling of the Katrina crisis and troop losses in Iraq have fueled public discontent and pushed Bush back to drink.

A Washington source said: “The sad fact is that he has been sneaking drinks for weeks now. Laura may have only just caught him

Handbook for Bloggers & Cyber-Dissidents

Reporters Without Borders released a Handbook For Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents yesterday (in English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Persian). Click here to download the full booklet.

The Handbook for Bloggers is for people who want to be serious participants in the emergent online global conversation: How to set up a quality, credible blog. How to get it noticed. And.. if you

Gillette Unveils 5-bladed Razor

Gillette FusionGillette has unveiled a new line of razors with five blades and a lubricating strip on both the front and back.

The razor, known as the Fusion, has blades spaced 30 percent closer than Gillette’s current MACH3Turbo system. It also has a single blade on the back of the cartridge for shaving sideburns or trimming under the nose.

The Fusion will also be available in a power version and features a micro-chip that regulates the voltage and blade action. Other high-tech features include a low battery indicator light and a safety switch that shuts the razor down after eight minutes of continuous operation.

It seems that everytime a razor company runs into the obstacle of coming up with a new product to out-do their competition, the only thing they can think of is adding an extra blade.

But then again, what could they do?
It’s just a razor for God’s sake!
I mean, they already added the lubricating strips, they made it’s shape aerodynamic, they made it’s head flexible, they made it vibrate, what else can they do but keep piling up the blades?

In a few years time we’ll end up with 20-blade razors that would serve better as a Ninja weapon.

I really don’t know why all this is needed, I personally think the 2-bladed Gillette Sensor Excel was really good enough. Now that i’m using the Mach3, shaving is not getting any better, in fact you lose precision with the extra blade.

The Simpsons in Arabic

A few days ago while watching MBC, they were showing some of the stuff they’ll be airing in Ramadhan, which is just around the corner now, and to my surprise an Arabic version of “The Simpsons” is in the schedule.

It will be called “Al Shamshoon” and dubbed in the Egyptian Accent.

Mohamed Heneidi will be lending his voice to Homer (Omar in the Arabic version), Hanan Turk to Bart and Lisa, and Rojeena to Marge.

The Arabized, or should I say Egyptianized, versions of animations that I’ve seen before were pretty decent and sometimes funny, but I’m not so sure about how “The Simpsons’ would turn out.

Shows like “The Simpsons”, “Futurama” and “Southpark” for example aren’t really the kind of shows that could be translated well into our language and culture, especially when you mean to show it in Ramadhan.
A lot of references to Alcohol, sex, God and other taboos that just won’t fit in.

“Southpark” was actually arabized in Kuwait, but they took the idea and redid the whole thing with new characters and another approach to its humor.
Maybe it would have been better to do something like that with “The Simpsons’.

Anyway, I’ll be checking it out, and I hope it turns out good, although the bits I saw in the preview weren’t too promising.

Other blogs talking about this: Savior Machine, Symbols.

Blogmania in the Maghreb

Afrique Magazine has a feature article by the name “Blogmania Au Maghreb” talking about blogging in the Maghreb countries (Tunisia, Algeria, Morroco, Libya & Mauritania).

The article highlights the Tunisian bloggers as the pioneers in the region, which I think is really cool.

A number of blogs from across the region are mentioned, among them mine (Wow!), as well as Adib, Dasdous, Etta, Geronimo, Manal, Lady M, Alger Intime and more.
It’s a shame that some of the very important and pioneering blogs from the region were left out.

The article didn’t really go too deep into the world of blogs, it just touched on the main lines. Anyway, I think it’s great that we’re getting some coverage in the press and that now more and more people will learn about blogs and will start blogging too.
Hopefully for future articles writers will get more in touch with the bloggers and why not even attend blogger meetups.

I bought the magazine yesterday after I heard about the article from other bloggers, and it’s a real pleasure to see blogs and bloggers highlighted.

Karim has scanned the article and made it into a PDF file for everyone to read online here. It’s in French though.

Blog Day 2005

Today is Blog Day 2005. But what is Blog Day?
Well Blog Day, the brain child of blogger Nir Ofir, was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers recommend other blogs to their blog visitors.

With the goal in mind, on this day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. In this way, all Blog web surfers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs.

So, for the occasion, I’ve gone on and searched for 5 new blogs, from around the world, that I never visted before and that I liked, and here is my list:

– Zimbabwean Pundit: A blogger from Zimbabwe, writing about the political situation and news in Zimbabwe.

– ThaRum: A blogger from Cambodia, chronicling events from his life there and discussing various issues.

– Finland for Thought: A blog from Finland, by an American though, discussing politics, current events and culture in Finland and USA.

– Jarango: A blogger from Panama, who blogs in English and Spanish, and writes about lots of interesting stuff.

– Small Island Girl: A blogger from Trinidad & Tobago, writing about her life and dreams on a small island.

I wouldn’t feel fair without pimping some of the blogs I know too, so here are some links:
AquaCool, Haitham Sabbah, And Far Away, Saudi Jeans, Je Blog, 2:48AM, Savior Machine, Zizou from Djerba, Aron’s Israel Peace Blog, Mouse Hunter…etc.
Check my blogroll for more interesting links 😉