A student in the United States committed suicide after being caught on tape with another guy. He updated his facebook status and jumped off the George Washington Bridge. [MSNBC News]

I really feel bad for this guy, but i can’t believe he thought of updating your facebook status before jumping off the bridge???

For those wondering why you die jumping off the GW bridge, here’s a picture of it.

I usually love to stay updated with everything that’s coming up and all knowing that i come from an IT background, but i’ve never convinced myself of subscribing to twitter cause i never saw any use out of it and i honestly still don’t but i was having a talk with Maya the other day and she told me there’s a whole community of Lebanese bloggers tweeting so i said i’d give it a shot.

My username is “LeNajib” since all others are taken. I ask all my beloved country men and women to “follow me”! lool

I was reading an interesting article on Beirut Spring on how a recent survey of readers of more than 400 blogs in Lebanon has shown that their numbers are close to the online readership of the most well-known Lebanese newspapers: both averaging 14,000 visitors daily.

It is true that there are some blogs who average a large number of visitors daily such as the BeirutSpring and even our blog but i think those numbers are exaggerated and miss out on a major source of information in Lebanon which are the Lebanese Political sites and News portals. LF website, FPM website, Kataeb website, lebanonfiles.com, elnashra.com and many others are way more visited than the most popular newspapers out there.

Most Lebanese rely on websites that relate to their political allegiance rater than check out newspapers for two reasons:
1- A lot of newspapers are politicized and are dull to read.
2- Political websites and portals are way more updates (by the second) than online papers.

Update: Last but not least, once we started blogbaladi, i looked for as many Lebanese blogs as I could find and i could not find more than 100.

I am as curious as Mark to know where those 400 came from?

Whenever one reads about car accidents and casualties, one cannot but feel bad and sorry for the victims and their families. However, i am starting to have mixed feelings lately specially when i read accidents like the one below.

An accident occurred this morning on the Nahr Ibrahim highway when a speeding car hit two young men who were supposedly arguing in the middle of the highway!!! Rabih Hassan Abbas, 29 years old and Fadi Ali Atallah, 40 years old, were arguing in the middle of the highway when they were hit by a speeding car, killing Rabih instantly and injuring seriously Fadi. [Source]

Are there no more places to fight except the middle of the highway?

Hisham Talaat Moustafa did not get the death sentence and “got away” with the murder he bluntly committed. It looks like Egypt cannot afford to kill a prominent member of its ruling party. [Source]

Suzanne’s family had already dropped the charges back in May 2010 for unknown reasons and now that the verdict is out, the only victim of this murder is still Suzanne Tamim.

The sentences can still be appealed by the defendants, the prosecutor or Tamim’s family, but i honestly don’t see that coming.

Asshole mentality: I’ll buy a totaled car, sell it for a small profit to a garage. The garage repairs the car and makes it look brand new. Some poor guy buys the previously wrecked car and spends a fortune on maintenance over the years…

There’s a parking lot next to the SNA building in Tabaris that frequently displays wrecked cars. A couple of weeks ago he had a Toyota RAV4 that was a complete wreck: airbags out, windshield broken, axles bent, front part completely damaged and he wanted 20,000$ for it!

His logic: you buy it for 20,000, you repair it for 2,000 and you sell it for 23 or 24,000.

He thought we were serious buyers, so he said: “ntebeh, ana ma bjib gheyr lebneni!” lol!

The new car he’s displaying is an SLK, I’m guessing early 2000s that is completely damaged on the side. Hit by a bus maybe?

I’m gonna ask the guy how much he wants for it on my way out from work.

I was checking out some old pictures of the Placebo concert that took place in Lebanon 3,4 months ago and i spotted this picture in the gallery.

Must be the Placebo effect.

I got a weird phone call today. The number was from the UK (+447624100000).
There wasn’t an actual person on the other side, it was a recording basically offering $10 million for any information on missing israeli soldiers.
I’ve always heard about these types of calls but I’ve never actually received one, until today.

10 million is a very tiny number compared to the amount of damage that was caused by Israel (see picture below). I hope people who actually do have this information don’t get greedy and sell out!

I was checking out some photos in the Lebanese MMA facebook page when I somehow stumbled upon a link to Eshtibak. Turns out Eshtibak are training courses made up of 5 levels. I only saw pictures of up to level 3 on their website and the picture above is from that gallery. Kinda looks like the magaweer training I used to hear about when I was a kid. A small snippet from their website:

Any man or woman, from different age groups, social status, and physical abilities can participate in Eshtibak courses to gain experience in self defense, and reality fighting skills. Moreover it’s ideal for field professionals working in security services (body guards, and security personnel), military and police forces to enhance their fighting abilities and field combat skills.

Sounds like an interesting way to spend a weekend. Here is their program from their last meet up:

Saturday:
10:00 – Departure from Eshtibak Institute
11:30 – Arrival to Destination, Niha
13:00 – Lunch
15:00 – 1st training session (stand fight and disarming pistol – Military and police expertise)
17:00 – 2nd training session (using and disarming knife and sticks – Kali)
20:30 – Dinner
22:00 – Night Marching
00:00 – Sleeping (All must go to bed)

Sunday:
05:30 – early morning light jogging and morning exercise
08:30 – Breakfast
10:00 – 3rd training session (Ground fighting – Jujitsu)
13:00 – Lunch
15:00 – 4th training session ( General revision for the 1st, 2nd, &3rd sessions)
18:00 – Certificate ceremony
18:30 – Departure to Beirut

For more information and lots of pictures visit their site [Here]

Few weeks back, we decided to go to Deir El Amar to visit a friend. We reached the road leading to Deir el Amar after a 45 minutes drive. The road from there was very nice but very badly designed. A lot of blind corners and barely any straights.

Once we got to Deir El Amar, our friend drove us to a place in the middle of nowhere up on the highest point in the city called “Bistrot 3a rawa2″. The place serves Lebanese and European food and has only outdoor tables. Its owner built it by himself during the July war in 2006 as he was stuck in Deir El Amar and had nothing to do. It opens only in summer.

While the waitress was taking our order, i noticed she was typing everything on her Iphone, turns out the kitchen is across the road and they have a website with a mobile application where they take orders and send them without having to visit the kitchen everytime. Pretty impressive for a place that far away from the city.

We ordered mostly Lebanese food, Labneh, Cheese, Chanklish etc …
The food was ok and the service very decent, but what you would love most about this place is how serene and beautiful it is. Music was also very convenient, no arabic or pop songs, just jazz and calm songs.

Last but not least, i advise those interested to try and visit the restaurant in day light in order to enjoy the scenery and have a safer drive.

Addiyar newspaper mentioned today that the sister of a current member of parliament was arrested in Jounieh for stealing.

News also stated that the member of parliament was shocked to hear such news!

This is very shocking indeed. The sister of a Lebanese politician stealing.

Following up on Najib’s post, this is a pic of the bridge.

In my opinion, the head of the municipality who authorized this should be penalized and the bridge should reopen immediately.

I thought i show Mr.Ghazi Aridi, our dear minister of public works, the bridge that he authorized to close maybe he is unaware of how crucial this bridge is for the whole area. He could be unaware of this bridge’s location as well who knows?

As shown in the picture above, this bridge allows all citizens coming from Naccache and its surroundings to take the maritime road instead of getting stuck in Antelias. It also allows all those coming from Jounieh to take the maritime road and avoid the traffic on the highway.

Therefore, by closing this bridge, all those coming from Naccache had to go back to Dbayyeh to take the maritime road or go to Antelias as they couldn’t even take the highway since the bridge is closed. Add to that the fact that most schools and universities started today, and it is a Monday and what you get is a complete disaster on the roads.

On another note, while watching the MTV news, they interviewed a certain Jeff Zalzali who appeared annoyed by the people’s reaction to this event. He even argued that a study was made on how this bridge closing would impact the traffic and as it turns out, it will only increase it by 15%.

I urge Mr.Zalzali, who was engaged at some point to Nathalie Fadlallah, owner of Nataly’s agency, to email us this study of his as well as his traffic engineer license because i am quite sure the real number was 150% not 15%. Added to that, Mr.Jeff claimed he looked all over Lebanon for suitable bridges but could not find better than this one and that and i quote “3am nekhdoum une cause” and people should be happy about it.

What is so great about Naccache Bridge? Its view on the highway? Emile Lahoud’s conference place next to it? The view on the unfinished Olympic pool from it? Or maybe people cursing you every 20 seconds while you do your stupid fashion show?

Almost 1 hour and half from Jounieh to Beirut in the morning and 2 hours on the way back.
Why you ask? Because Nathaly’s Agency were authorized by the minister of public works, Mount Lebanon governor and the ISF to hold a fashion show right on the Naccache bridge.

For all of those who don’t know where that bridge is, it is situated on the highway between Antelias and Dbayyeh and is a crucial road for almost everyone going down to Beirut from Naccache or its surroundings.

How stupid should one be to authorize such a thing? WTF were they thinking? And it is not just for one day but three!

MTV are broadcasting a special report on this incident tonight.

A Lebanese citizen burned his car at 9 am today to protest AGAINST building a public garden in Rihan, Jezzine. [Source]