I was flipping through channels when I saw this guy on some Sri Lankan TV. Quite the resemblance no?

I went and visited the newly open Magnolia Bakery at the ABC Mall in Dbayyeh two days ago and picked up a selection of cupcakes and cake slices. The Hummingbird cake was a bit too sweet but good, the Red Velvet was great however the Blueberry cake was too sweet and I didn’t like it.

As for cupcakes, I am not a big fan of cupcakes so I can’t really judge but I liked the chocolate ones. I recommend though that you try the banana pudding, it’s really good. Price-wise, the cupcake costs on average 5000 LL and the cake slice 8000 LL but the cake portions are pretty big.

[YouTube]

My eyes hurt. It’s a good thing she disabled the ratings.

Via Elie

I spotted this poster outside O&C Fresh Market in Jal el Dib. Amending Law 174 has been requested by a large number of restaurants in Lebanon, mainly Shisha cafés who believe they should have a license for indoor smoking. I’ve expressed my opinion on this matter several times; I am all for banning smoking in restaurants/pubs/hotels but there should be special licenses to Shisha cafés or cigar places or other places where people just go to smoke.

Green Party of Lebanon TVC

What’s with the giant mushrooms?

Fresh pictures from Skileb.com taken today.

Viber is no longer working on Alfa (Not sure about Touch) as the ministry has apparently stopped the service for all 3G subscribers. It is still working on Wireless connections though. Gino has some explanations as to why the service was stopped and how to bypass it. You can check them out [Here].

I think one of the reasons could be that Telecarte and Kalam cards will be back soon, if they are not back already.

I got a call from LG a week ago asking me if I was interested in reviewing their 42″ Cinema 3D TV. I haven’t bought a TV in years but I’ve started looking for one lately as my house will be finished in 6 months time so LG’s call came at the right time. To make it even better, I asked them if I could give away the TV to BlogBaladi’s readers as an early Christmas gift instead of returning it and they were kind enough to accept!

When I picked up the TV, the first thing that caught my attention was how light it is. The TV without the stand only weighs 28.9 lbs (around 13 kg) and is 35.5 mm thick. After I took it out of the box and set it up, I went through the menu quickly and noticed it has a considerable number of in-built apps and online tools, including a web browser, and shortcuts to various social media tools. While having so many services may sound like a good thing, it’s sometimes hard to toggle through those options using the buttons on the TV remote but the LG remote is very practical and has a “Home” button as well as “My Apps” and “Settings” buttons that make it very easy to access the various features. The “Home” button is the most useful one as it takes you to an LG Dashboard that contains everything you might need to access. I read online about a “Magic Remote Control” that usually comes with LG Smart TVs but mine didn’t have any.

I tried next connecting the TV to my WI-FI network but I wasn’t able to as it asked me to insert a WI-FI dongle into the USB Port. I connected using a LAN cable for now but I am sure there’s a way to do it wirelessly without a dongle as I’ve read it on some reviews. I will hopefully have an answer for that when I post the full review.

Using the browser or social media tools is not very practical using the Remote Control but you could easily plug in a keyboard and use the internet and all the features. You don’t have to worry about empty slots as there’s a handful number of AV Inputs/Outputs, including 4 HDMI™/HDCP Inputs and 3 USB 2.0 ports.

As far as the picture and sound are concerned, the quality is superior and there’s nothing much to say about that. I’ve already watched movies and tested the sound quality and 3D in one of LG’s showrooms and it’s more than you could ask for. For those of you who like to make changes, there’s a lot of flexibility in enhancing the picture and sound capability.

One of the best things about this TV is the 3D. I will not go into the details at the moment but LG uses passive 3D technology that is based on cheap polarized 3D glasses, the ones that are given to you in movie theaters today. It’s almost as good as active 3D and is a cheap and user-friendly solution. To make it even better, LG gives you 6 pairs of 3D glasses that don’t need to be recharged, which are more than enough and far better than other TVs that require 100$+ glasses.

Having said that, the question that comes to your mind is: Who’s gonna watch 3D everyday? Well I most definitely won’t be doing so but what I am dying to try is Black Ops II using LG’s Dual Play Technology. Instead of having a split screen, you can now play on the full screen. I’ve already tried it with a car racing game and it’s amazing!

To cut it short, there are a lot of features that I haven’t tested yet but my first impression of the TV is a very positive one. Here are some of the stuff I will be testing thoroughly in the next few weeks:

- Watching 3D movies every 2 days or so to see if I could get used to it.
- Call of Duty®: Black Ops II Dual Play
- Linking storage devices/PC/Tablets or Smart Phones to the TV
- Trying to play around with picture/sound settings.
- Installing and Using LG’s SMART TV Remote App

As far as the competition to win the TV is concerned, and given that it’s a a big prize this time, I am thinking of making it a bit more challenging and complicated this time and will be posting about it soon.

[YouTube]

[Hi-Res]

I uploaded this picture on Instagram this morning and many people loved it, so I thought I share it on the blog with a better resolution.

PS: For those interested, you can follow me on Instagram [LeNajib] or/and check more of my pictures [Here].

Lebanese blogger Khattar Torbey shared the same exact views on the recent “We Believe” ad that I wrote about this morning. I thought of sharing it given the importance of the issue and because it could reach a bigger audience since it’s written in Arabic.

بخصوص هيدي حملة “نؤمن” لمناهضة (؟) العنف ضدّ المرأة، وهالفيديو يلّي عارضينلنا فيه سحبة من أعلى رجال الدين مرتبة بأبهى حللهم وهم يدينون العنف ضدّ المرأة \ الزوجة ويوصون بها خيرا، سؤال:

طيّب إذا هيك من الّذي يمنع إقرار قانون العنف الأسري؟! هم رجال الدين أنفسهم، علنا وباسم الدين! فإذا لا بدّ من حملة في هذا الموضوع، وجب إدانتهم على مواقفهم، على حؤولهم دون حماية المرأة قانونا من أي عنف تتعرّض له. لا أن نكافئهم بحملة تبرّئ ذمّتهم في هذا الموضوع!!!

أو أنّو القضيّة إنّو نستعيض عن القانون بالنصح الأخلاقي؟؟؟… يا عيني… يعني كان بعد فيه هيدي!!! بكرا منلغي قانون العقوبات ومحلّ القاضي منعيّن واعظ أخلاقي وديني، وكلّ ما واحد قتل أو سرق، منقلّو يصلّي المسبحة، وفوقها 2 أبانا وواحد سلام، ويقرا الفاتحة ويروح يعملّه 500 ركعة بالزاوية!!!

Read it all [Here].

[YouTube]
Part of Min el Ekhir show on MTV

I have no idea what he’s rapping about but he’s talented and enjoying what he’s doing. Maybe he should try to mix Arabic and English to reach a bigger crowd in Lebanon.

ABAAD is a non-profit, non-politically affiliated, non-religious civil association that aims to achieve gender equality as an essential condition to sustainable social and economic development in the MENA region. ABAAD seeks to promote women’s equality and participation through policy development, legal reform, gender mainstreaming, engaging men, eliminating discrimination, and advancing and empowering women to participate effectively and fully in their communities. ABAAD also seeks to support and collaborate with civil society organizations that are involved in gender equality programs and advocacy campaigns. [Link]

I am all for promoting gender equality and ending violence against women but I don’t see how letting Muslim & Christian leaders endorse the “International 16 Days Campaign of Activism to End Violence Against Women (VAW) and Girls” is going to help in anyway.

Back in January 2012, a law that criminalizes violence perpetrated against women by family members was not passed due to pressure from religious leaders. Here’s what some of them had to say:

“The supreme Sunni Muslim authority in Lebanon, Dar El Fatwa, last summer issued a statement in response to a new draft law addressing domestic violence, claiming the proposal was intended to “break up the family similar to Western ways, which are foreign to our society and values.” Dar El Fatwa, as well as leading Shia religious figures in Lebanon, fear that putting the power to prosecute men for spousal abuse into the hands of the government would undermine the authority of Sharia courts in dealing with family matters. And in a country that is constitutionally divided along sectarian lines, such declarations directly affect the political process.” [Link]

So if religions truly prohibit violence against women, and religious leaders are agreeing with that, why isn’t the law passed once and for all? Wouldn’t it be better if the organization in question made them pressure the government to pass the law?

Lebanon ranked 128th out of 176 countries with a score of 30 over 100. Only Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Iran have worse rankings in the area. We’ve slightly improved from the past two years but we still have a long way ahead. In fact, I am surprised we are climbing ranks; it could be that other countries are getting more corrupt lol!

You can check out the full list and report [Here].