First Communion is a traditionally important festive occasion for Catholic & Maronite families in Lebanon and is usually celebrated in the month of May.
Kelee, a shop in Zouk Mosbeh that sells gifts and gadgets for all occasions, is drawing attention by keeping Incense burning in front of its place for a few days. That ought to get him few extra customers especially that almost everyone living in that area has to pass in front of the shop to head to Beirut or Jbeil.
However, Kelee should have executed its idea better as the incense burner is badly placed and looks cheap. One might think it’s the Jean & Jean shop or nearby garage wishing everyone a blessed first communion. Garages in Lebanon are very religious as we all know.
I had some work today with an Englishman, and as we were talking about Lebanon and places to visit, I mentioned the Cedars forest. He knew of course what it was but it turns out that they have in his hometown back in Leicester the biggest Lebanese Cedar tree in all of Europe.
I did some research and found out the symbol of Birstall, the village where the Cedar tree is located, is a Cedar tree. The original and beautiful tree stands in Roman Road. It was once in the grounds of the now demolished Birstall Hall. [Wiki]
Looking at the size of that Cedar tree, it’s been there for more than 30-40 years if not more.
A dog roaming the Corniche of the coastal city of Sidon for nearly an hour frightened bystanders early Thursday morning before a policeman subdued the animal and took it away.
…
Sidon Municipality Police arrived at the scene and were about to sedate the animal using a stun gun. However, a policeman from the Internal Security Forces who is a longtime pet owner was able to calm the dog without using force and put a chain leash on it.
Hard to believe no one tried to shoot it or run it over. Even the cops were planning to use a stun gun and not real bullets. I’m impressed. [Link]
I activated yesterday the 100MB 3G plan on my mother’s mobile. Once activated, I typed *11# and pressed Dial to check the usage and I was surprised to see I have 93.2 Mbytes left.
According to IPSOS STAT Beirut, LBC has the highest average daily viewership share in Lebanon for the year 2011 with 38.4%. I was surprised to see Al Jadeed in second place and shocked to read that 11.6% still watch Tele Liban.
Here’s the full list: LBC 38.4% Jadeed: 35 % MTV 28.7%
OTV 25.4%
Future 16.7%
NBN 12.3%
Manar 12%
TL: 11.6%
Future News: 10.9%
Those stats are taken from Habib Battah’s post entitled “The myth of Lebanese television news”. It’s an interesting article which you can check out [Here].
WISE introduced the unlimited night usage between 12 a.m. and 7 a.m. few years back, but it was crap until DSL was launched and many switched from WISE to DSL. I remember calling the WISE guys after midnight 3-4 times a week as I would have no connection at all. (I would need it to work sometimes, not just download stuff).
Anyway, I didn’t expect a better outcome from DSL and I wasn’t wrong to think so. In fact, I tried downloading a movie on a DSL connection yesterday night and woke up to find it stuck at 5%. I downloaded it again during the day and it took approximately 4 hours for a 600Mbytes movie.
We desperately need a TV show like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to make fun of parliament sessions like that. Lebanese TVs are missing out on a great opportunity here.
I am loving Cafe Najjar’s new ads. I saw another one on TV but could not find it on YouTube. While looking for it, I found this really old Cafe Abi Nasr ad. I remember singing that song for weeks back when the ad came out.
A group calling itself ‘Raise Your Voice’ hacked on Tuesday around 15 Lebanese government websites to ask for an improvement in living standards, the day the parliament launches a three-day session to assess the cabinet’s performance. “We are RYV, short for Raise Your Voice, and we are simply a group of people who could not bear sitting in silence, watching all the crimes and injustice going on in Lebanon,” the group said. [Naharnet]
Here’s the list of all the hacked websites:
http://www.presidencyinfo.gov.lb/
http://www.isc.gov.lb/
http://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/
http://www.omspa.gov.lb/
http://www.customs.gov.lb/
http://www.justice.gov.lb/
http://www.transportation.gov.lb/
http://www.moew.gov.lb/
http://www.foreign.gov.lb/
http://www.ebml.gov.lb/
http://www.bccl.gov.lb/
http://www.isf.gov.lb/
http://www.interior.gov.lb/
http://www.southernlebanon.gov.lb/
http://www.state-security.gov.lb/
Except for the ISF website, I believe the hackers are the only people visiting those websites.
This website has been there ever since Annahar went online. Even if they are no longer using it, I think they should just keep it and redirect it to the official website, Annahar.com.
How did he fit in that suitcase? How was he breathing? That’s just crazy!
A Lebanese man turned the joke of climbing into somebody’s suitcase a reality when he hid in the luggage of a German to cross the Turkish border into Greece. Turkish customs officers at the Pazarkule Customs Gate ordered the German man to open his suitcase when they became suspicious over its enormous size. When they unzipped the luggage, the officers found the 20-year-old Lebanese identified by his initials as A.J curled up inside in a fetal position. [Naharnet]
