[Source]

A submarine cable which will give Internet service providers the capacity they need to supply high-speed Internet services, including 3G, was put into action Monday, after months of waiting. “The tap was closed, and now it’s open,” Antoine Boustany, an adviser to Telecoms Minister Nicolas Sehnawi said Tuesday. [DailyStar]

So we should be hoping for a faster and cheaper internet soon.

Ever wondered why the internet is that expensive?

Unlike government-owned Alfa and MTC, ISPs currently pay some $3,000 for a line which costs the government $100 to supply, and Tarabay said that this is prohibitive to ISPs being able to provide affordable fast Internet to users.

“At the moment it’s as if they were inviting you to buy property in Downtown [Beirut],” he said. “There’s a lot of land, but nobody can afford it.”

We should call it a national holiday the day we get a decent internet connection in this country. Nevertheless, I am not buying this story and won’t believe a word they say until I have a proper connection at home.

I’m a big fan of zaatar w zeit but I absolutely dislike their new identity as well as the new look and feel of their branches. With their new identity I feel like they’re leaving the Lebanese culture behind and heading towards a generic fast food chain look. Why drop the beautiful Arabic typography? Why go from warm, cozy and homy to cold and clinical?

Take a shot at us and we will make sure you won’t miss it!

This is just getting better and better. [More on Fap]

The Happiness Heroes initiative that was initiated in May 2011 and I introduced back then finally came to an end few weeks ago with a fun-filled fair held in Taanayel which brought together over 1000 children in a full day of entertainment and activities.

Here are few excerpts from the Press Release defining the campaign and listing its achievements:

The program, developed in collaboration with arcenciel, consisted of a competition between various students in 30 schools throughout Lebanon, encouraging them to volunteer in six projects to safeguard the ecosystem, protect the environment, provide social support to families in need, or help the elderly and people with special requirements.

These kinds of CSR programs are key to building a better future for Lebanon and its youth. Responsible companies, like Picon, have the ability to change the way things are going for the better.

Local hero Maxime Chaya surprised the children with a guest appearance and shared various inspirational stories with them, just before awarding the 7 victorious schools with honorary medals.

With the missions coming to an end for this year, Bel Group, represented by Picon, can proudly claim to have produced an enormous number of young heroes in Lebanon. As a result, the initiative inspired them to become more actively involved in their community with the newfound belief that even the smallest action can have a tremendous and positive impact on the lives of the Lebanese.

I cannot but applaud Picon, the participating schools and all the organizing parties behind this campaign because there is an imminent need for companies and organizations to be more socially responsible and spread awareness, solidarity and love among young Lebanese generations to keep them away from becoming victims of our rotten and sectarian political system.

It is very refreshing to see young students actively involved in helping out the elderly, the poor, the disabled, and taking care of our environment rather than yell political chants at some local party’s rally.

Having said that, I was looking forward to participating in one of the events but the one I was able to go to got postponed for some reason. Nevertheless, it seems that Picon’s heroes will be back next year on a new quest so I will have a second chance to be part of this great initiative.

You can see from his email that he is very professional.

Spotted near AUB.

This guy has been watching too many movies. Notice his address is MP (Market Place). Looks like it’s an impossible mission to find him.

I am not sure if this is reliable news or not, but it appears that during James Blunt’s concert on June 28 at Biel in Downtown Beirut, he threw himself at the crowds thinking they’d catch him but instead found himself on the ground. Apparently no one understood what he was trying to do so they stepped aside. He did not get hurt. [Link]

If anyone has or found a footage of this incident, please do share.

The fight that was scheduled between an Egyptian man and the lion he purchased finally took place few days ago and the Egyptian came out as victorious from what looked more like a fake show off rather than a real fight.

Apparently the lion was fed a whole donkey before the fight and he was too lazy to do anything, leaving Al-Sayed al-Essawy to poke him for 20 minutes before he declared himself a winner. [Link]

What a lame dude.

Do we really need to fire weapons to separate football players who are fighting? Seriously? Machine gun fire starts at 1:49 [YouTube]

It is reasonable for artists in pubs or night clubs to start singing at 11 or 12 pm as the party would not have kicked in yet, but why is it becoming a trend in most restaurants nowadays?

I went to “Mon General” in Zouk Mikail yesterday for a birthday dinner and Aline Lahoud was performing there. I arrived there around 9:30 pm and left at midnight (had to leave early) and Aline had not shown up yet. This is the third restaurant I go to this year with very late performances.

Not that I mind late performances, but it doesn’t make sense to have dinner at 9 and drink and eat until midnight, or wait until 11pm to go out and dine.

What’s she doing until midnight anyways? rehearsing?

Also, food was not that bad even though they didn’t have much on the menu, but what made my night was the 1 Liter Almaza Draught Beer I had.

My sister called me all pissed off this morning coz she just learned that the parking in front of Virgin Megastores downtown where she parks has been taken over by valets. You are not allowed to park your car yourself at any time of the day apparently. If you want to park the car in the downtown parking lot for an entire day, you now have to pay 9,000 LL and give them the keys to your car…

I personally wouldn’t give my car to any valet. I’d rather park a kilometer away and walk.

I once went to Khaymet el Sanyour in Antelias for breakfast, and the valet guy had just gotten to the work on his mobilette. So he came to my car and handed me a number. I told him I’d rather park it myself, he then says “shou mfakkara Porsche?” (“You think you’re driving a Porsche?”) The guy is driving a mobilette and is giving me crap about my car… wtf…

I’ve come to realize that the place causing most of the traffic on the maritime road facing City Mall lately is a new open air night club in town, called Pier 7.[Chahe's post]

I don’t want to judge it before going there but is it a smart idea to open an open-air place in an industrial area and facing the Karantina garbage mountain? Can you imagine the smells there? How about the inexisting parking spaces in that area that Chahe mentioned as well?

It is always refreshing to see new places opening up, but I wish people thought a bit further before rushing and opening new places just because that’s the trend and “of course its gonna work”.

I am not saying the place is bad, just that this is a very bold move to open there, so the expectations will be very high from people and any ‘smelly’ night might cost the place dearly.

Gino went to the opening night and wrote a review for those interested in reading it [Review]. No mention of smells though, maybe he had a cold.

A new club opened up on the Seaside road yesterday. This isn’t a post about the club itself but the ridiculous amount of traffic it caused yesterday around 7 while I was going back home from work.

Traffic was insane and people were parking left and right on the road reducing the lanes from 3 to 2 and finally to 1 then none

It’s not enough that there is traffic during the day all the time, but now because of this place there is even more at night…

And apparently White is supposed to open up somewhere next to it soon.

I don’t understand how they can give permits to clubs that don’t have dedicated parking spots! This place has a capacity of 2,500 people. So on a good night, you can expect to have up to 1,000 cars! Where the hell do you park these cars! I really hope these places shut down ASAP.