Ex-PM Saad Hariri (@HaririSaad) fans are really enjoying his tweets as he is answering almost everyone and proving to be down-to-earth and nice. He invited me over for dinner along with @saharghazale. I will make sure to remind him when he gets back to Beirut.
Ziad Baroud (@ZiyadBaroud) on the other hand is not getting that personal but when asked about his opinion on the Spielberg censorship at Cinemacity, he answered that he’s against any form of censorship. That’s why we need him back at the Ministry of Interior.
For those interested in reading about some of the most interesting Lebanese users of Twitter, Mustapha has come up with a comprehensive guide that you can check [Here].
MTC Touch received a warning from the organizers of the New Seven Wonders competition for violating competition laws over its donation of 100,000 votes for Lebanon’s Jeita Grotto.
Nabil Haddad, the general manager at Jeita, told LBC Thursday that MTC’s stunt was illegal, but said that the situation is being resolved to prevent the organizers from denying Jeita the right to remain in the race.[Link]
I received an email two days ago asking me to download some software that will automatically vote for Jeita every time I enter a text or a number. Of course I did not download it but that pretty much tells you everything about this competition. Thank God it finishes tomorrow!
That’s the second time in one week. I wonder what is it this time? The underwater Cable malfunctioning again?
Update: Internet is working at 10% of its capacity and the problem is not with the cable this time but with the ministry’s equipment in their Jdeideh office. [Link]
After the big fuss that the selective censorship at Cinemacity post did yesterday, L’Orient-Le Jour’s Sandra Noujeim investigated the issue further and showed in her report that the General Security had nothing to do with the matter.
As it turns out, it was a Cinemacity employee who took the liberty of covering Spielberg’s name, and not the General Security Directorate. Whether he did it with the administration’s consent or without it is still unknown.
The funny thing is that the Cinemacity administration blamed the General Security for the decision, who in return denied any involvement. Nevertheless, what matters is that the name is no longer censored (even though I have to see it to believe it).
In other Tintin-related news, the Vatican “called Tintin a ‘Catholic hero’ and ridiculed suggestions he may be racist”. [Link]
I’ve been going to Hoops Antelias every Saturday for the past month to play Basketball and every time, there’s a football coach training young kids, or at least pretending to do so.
Check out in the picture above how many kids are playing at the same time and you will know what I mean. I could understand a team of 6 or even 7 but 30 players on a mini-football field is too much.
PS: There are 6-8 extra kids on the other side of the field.
I went to Cinema City in City Mall yesterday to watch the new Tintin movie. The movie was produced by Steven Spielberg, but you wouldn’t know that just by looking at the posters. Steven Spielberg’s name is blacked out on all posters!
I guess that we shouldn’t mention or see his name since he’s jewish, but we can go ahead and watch a movie he produced. I wonder whose decision this was: Cinema City or the Government?
Ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri has joined Twitter few days ago and has been answering almost every tweet he gets. I am not sure if it’s him tweeting but he is answering some personal questions, so it might just be him.
One interesting tweet highlighted by Mustapha was Angie from NowLebanon asking him whether he likes Batman and what’s his favorite movie?
As you can see in the picture above, he answered back.
I spotted those wires on the Dbayyeh highway right after Nahr el Kalb (if you are heading towards Beirut), and before the Canadian embassy on the maritime road. I also remember seeing one of those on the Dora highway but can’t remember where.
The one in Jal el Dib is connected to a small box on an electricity pole. They can’t be just random wires because they are well fixed on the ground.
First thought that occurred to me is that they are linked to some sensor that detects the number of cars passing by but I highly doubt the concerned ministry is using such equipment.
However, at a press conference on Wednesday, Nadim Khater, chief commercial officer for mtc touch, said that during the company’s month-long test phase, users in Beirut saw an average download speed of 4.3 Mbps. There were only 2,000 customers testing the network.
When asked if he thought the speeds would go down as more users subscribe, he said, “Absolutely.†[Link]
The question remains: How low will the speeds get as more users subscribe? That remains to be seen in the next few weeks.
In other related news, Internet users throughout Lebanon experienced a major slow-down Monday morning, as the country lost the connection to its primary underwater India-Middle East-Western Europe (IMEWE) cable. [Link]
From what I know, there should always be a backup cable for such cases. Seems we don’t have one. It would be nice to see Sehnaoui doing press conferences when something’s going wrong, not just when announcing new releases or good news. It will definitely make him more credible if he shares the ministry’s issues with the concerned Lebanese.
A Nabatieh resident decided to use the parking meters to park his donkey. I assume he put the plate number on the donkey’s ass to make sure he never gets any ticket.
