I was at G-Star Raw‘s launching party last week and I was having a little chat with their Business Developer Patrick Reytenbagh who asked me which Lebanese restaurant I would recommend for a lunch or dinner for a tourist coming to Lebanon. I had a lot of places in mind but he just wanted that one-place that would leave a great impression and a one of a kind experience and the only restaurant I could think of is Babel in Dbayyeh.
I looked through my previous posts and I was surprised to see that I’ve never reviewed Babel even though I’ve been there countless times. The only post I could find was one entitled ‘Lebanese Hospitality‘ showing how generous Babel is. Everything from the presentation, the architecture, the food and the service is unique and almost perfect. Even the toilets look great lol!
Until I write a full review, I leave with some of Babel’s specialties and this nice post by NoGarlicNoOnions. Babel is located in Dbayyeh.
The only thing that’s missing is a website for the restaurant as I couldn’t find any which is pretty weird.
Who wants to watch the Premiere of one of the best action movies for this summer at Lebanon’s biggest and newest screen? If you are interested, just leave a comment on this post with a valid email and I will draw a winner at the end of the day. The invitation is for 2.
The event marks the official opening of Vox Cinemas and is taking place on May 21st 2013 starting 7:30 pm.
PS: There’s a cocktail reception before the movie premiere and a special parking space will be available for all the guests on Level L2 of the mall
NB: You need to put your proper email in the email field while commenting since winner will be contacted by email. You can only comment once, anyone caught commenting more than once will get disqualified.
To be honest, I didn’t think too highly of the painting but that’s not a reason to ban it, given that it was really banned since the spokesperson for JABAL, Ms. Zeina Antonios, told Beirut.com the painting was pulled because it was “too expensive for the show”.
On May 8, Fransabank launched the 9th edition of its JABAL exhibition at Hotel Le Gray to great success, with 18 of the 25 artists having sold their artwork during the launching event alone.
But one artist’s work – which appears in JABAL’s official catalogue – never made it to the actual exhibit. Mhammad Saad’s Farewell Beirut depicts Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (in addition to various other Lebanese politicians, including former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea among others) as a character in one of Michelangelo’s most renowned works, The Creation of Adam. [Link]
That’s quite an amazing story. I had no clue a Lebanese was behind Pou.
When Yahoo! paid 17-year-old Nick D’Aloisio $30 million for news summary app Summly, one of our Wamda contributors wrote us, “I’m looking forward to the day when somebody on Wamda writes the Arab version of this story.”
The story of Lebanese developer Paul Salameh is almost that story. He might not be a teenager (he’s 24) and his app might not influence the future of media consumption, but rumors have swirled that he has been offered $20 million for its acquisition.
“He’s probably making around $30,000 day, by conservative estimation,” a local source told us, based upon estimates of downloads of the $1.99 iOS version and in-app purchases on its Android app. That’s a cool $1 million a month.
For what? Pou. Yes, that’s the name of his app, which resembles a colorful, mobile version of Japanese digital pet Tamagotchi. In Pou, players can feed, wash, and play games with a brown, triangular alien pet, which has turned out to be wildly addictive; the app made a global Top 5 Paid iOS Apps list last month, sees between between 260-320,000 downloads a day on Android, and has so far hit #1 in the iPhone kids games category in a total of 90 countries. [Wamda]
You can download Pou from the [Apple Store] or [Play Store]. To view the article’s full version [Here].
The trailer for my current timelapse project about Dubai and its futuristic architecture. Release of the final video is planned for early 2014. [Vimeo]
Beautiful. Looking forward to watching the final video once it gets released.
Well the story made it to LBCI News tonight and Habib was interviewed briefly on what happened with him. Added to that, he posted today a picture of what DistrictS was hiding.
Picture taken from the DailyStar
Preserving ruins is unfortunately a hopeless case in Lebanon.
A convicted Palestinian terrorist named Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad, who once hijacked an airliner in Greece has been deported from Canada 26 years after he first arrived there. Though he is not a Lebanese citizen, Mohammad has “standing” in that country and had married a Lebanese woman, Kenney said. Lebanon agreed to allow him to return, but did not provide any assurances about his treatment, Kenney said, noting that it is “not a requirement.”
Why would we want him back in Lebanon if he’s a convicted terrorist? Funnily enough and as stated by the source, “the “endless appeals” were not what kept Mohammad in Canada. The fact that no country would take him made it difficult for Ottawa to deport him”. I hope they won’t count him as a Canadian tourist haha!
What’s even funnier is that the Canadian authorities who were working on deporting him for years took into consideration his health issues and sent him on a charter plane equipped with medical equipment, while the Lebanese authorities didn’t provide any assurances on the man’s health, noting and I quote that “it is not a requirement”.
Prices proposed by Alfa: Is it me or are the new packages really expensive?
Alfa just launched the 4G officially and here are few details shared by Abir and from Alfa. Alfa is the 6th company to launch the 4G technology in the MENA region.
The 4G network will only support data at the moment to be followed by calls and SMS by end of June. I already tried to send an SMS this morning and it failed. The 4G coverage map is restricted to Beirut at the moment as shown below:
The devices that work on the Alfa 4G network are:
1- Lumia 920
2- Galaxy S3 (that supports LTE)
3- Galaxy Note 2 (that supports LTE)
4- LG Optimus g
5- iPad mini
BB Z10 and Q10 are not currently supported and iPhones are pending licensing agreements. Sending SMS on #Alfa4G network is expected by end of June. Only the iPhone 5 model A1429 will be supported.
You can zoom in to any spot on the planet and watch the same three-decade timelapse unroll. Try it [Here].
Since the 1970s, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey have been amassing satellite images of every inch of our planet as part of the Landsat program. Over time, the images reveal a record of change: of cities expanding, lakes and forests disappearing, new islands emerging from the sea off the coast of rising Middle East metropolises like Dubai.
Landsat images taken between 1984 and 2012 have been converted into a seamless, navigable animation built from millions of satellite photos. As Google wrote this morning on its blog: “We believe this is the most comprehensive picture of our changing planet ever made available to the public.” [Link]
I took some screenshots of Lebanon and Beirut throughout the years.
Lebanon in 1984
Lebanon in 1994
Lebanon in 2000
Lebanon in 2012
The only major changes you can spot is in Beirut (Solidere) as you can see below. Otherwise, the green areas are shrinking.
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