Are you suffering from all this Ramadan traffic jams in Kuwait? I got the answer

Introducing the walking beetle

Walk all over traffic and make your trip really short.

If anyone gives you a dirty look because your car is not kash5a then you can zap them

hand in hand in hand ad infinitum

watch the hands and you will know what I mean.

Trippy, right?

Crazy Bookshelf - I need one just like that

I always lay my books flat on the shelves, I end up with lots of wasted space and a big mess. The bookcase below is perfect for me Why didn't anyone invent it earlier?

You can buy it here.

song stuck in my head

This song is stuck in my head and I can't get it out.


Time goes by so slowly

Every little thing that you say or do
I'm hung up
I'm hung up on you
Waiting for your call
Baby night and day
I'm fed up
I'm tired of waiting on you

Time goes by so slowly for those who wait
No time to hesitate
Those who run seem to have all the fun
I'm caught up
I don't know what to do


A prize goes to whoever recognizes the lyrics, and no cheating by googling it, you must tell me where the sample is from also.

Hypnotizing Picture

Here is a hypnotizing picture, I can't explain it, just check it out here.

Very Cheap Wall Mounted Flat Screen TV

Ever been to an electronics shop showing all these hot flat screen plasma displays that you can hang on your wall just like a portrait? Very attractive but is the 4 figure price really worth it?

Well here is a real cheap answer to your wall mounted cravings.

Vanilla - my new addiction

While browsing in a local coop in Kuwait, I came across this little Vanilla jar.
I love Vanilla, or "banilla" as our filipino friends call it, so I went ahead and bought the small jar.





I made some coffee and added some vanilla. I think I added too much because the coffee tasted bitter. Next I made some tea and added just a small pinprick amount, my plain tea turned into a very delicious vanilla smelling tea.

Now, before futoor I am thinking of where else I can use Vanilla, vanilla laban sounds good, vanilla kunafa even better, vanilla chicken, meat, machboos, hmm... I don't think so.

Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street - Michael Lewis

I read Liar's Poker a few years ago, a really good book about what happens inside Wall Street. Very educational and very entertaining. My favorite part was the first chapter, which I am posting verbatim here, a little lengthy but demonstrates high stakes, b*lls of steel, ice cold personality and calculated risk taking. The rest of the book is great also.

IT WAS sometime early in 1986, the first year of the decline of my firm, Salomon Brothers. Our chairman, John Gutfreund, left his desk at the head of the trading floor and went for a walk. At any given moment on the trading floor billions of dollars were being risked by bond traders. Gutfreund took the pulse of the place by simply wandering around it and asking questions of the traders. An eerie sixth sense guided him to wherever a crisis was unfolding. Gutfreund seemed able to smell money being lost.

He was the last person a nerve-racked trader wanted to see. Gutfreund (pronounced Good friend) liked to sneak up from behind and surprise you. This was fun for him but not for you. Busy on two phones at once trying to stem disaster, you had no time to turn and look. You didn't need to. You felt him. The area around you began to convulse like an epileptic ward. People were pretending to be frantically busy and at the same time staring intently at a spot directly above your head. You felt a chill in your bones that I imagine belongs to the same class of intelligence as the nervous twitch of a small furry animal at the silent approach of a grizzly bear. An alarm shrieked in your head: Gutfreund! Gutfreund! Gutfreund!

Often as not, our chairman just hovered quietly for a bit, then left. You might never have seen him. The only trace I found of him on two of these occasions was a turd-like ash on the floor beside my chair, left, I suppose, as a calling card. Gutfreund's cigar droppings were longer and better formed than those of the average Salomon boss. I always assumed that he smoked a more expensive blend than the rest, purchased with a few of the $40 million he had cleared on the sale of Salomon Brothers in 1981 (or a few of the $3. 1 million he paid himself in 1986,more than any other Wall Street CEO).

This day in 1986, however, Gutfreund did something strange. Instead of terrifying us all, he walked a straight line to the trading desk of John Meriwether, a member of the board of Salomon Inc. and also one of Salomon's finest bond traders. He whispered a few words. The traders in the vicinity eavesdropped. What Gutfreund said has become a legend at Salomon Brothers and a visceral part of its corporate identity. He said: "One hand, one million dollars, no tears. "

One hand, one million dollars, no tears. Meriwether grabbed the meaning instantly. The King of Wall Street, as Business Week had dubbed Gutfreund, wanted to play a single hand of a game called Liar's Poker for a million dollars. He played the game most afternoons with Meriwether and the six young bond arbitrage traders who worked for Meriwether and was usually skinned alive. Some traders said Gutfreund was heavily outmatched. Others who couldn't imagine John Gutfreund as anything but omnipotent-and there were many梥aid that losing suited his purpose, though exactly what that might be was a mystery.

The peculiar feature of Gutfreund's challenge this time was the size of the stake. Normally his bets didn't exceed a few hundred dollars. A million was unheard of. The final two words of his challenge, "no tears, " meant that the loser was expected to suffer a great deal of pain but wasn't entitled to whine, bitch, or moan about it. He'd just have to hunker down and keep his poverty to himself. But why? You might ask if you were anyone other than the King of Wall Street. Why do it in the first place? Why, in particular, challenge Meriwether instead of some lesser managing director? It seemed an act of sheer lunacy. Meriwether was the King of the Game, the Liar's Poker champion of the Salomon Brothers trading floor.

On the other hand, one thing you learn on a trading floor is that winners like Gutfreund always have some reason for what they do; it might not be the best of reasons, but at least they have a concept in mind. I was not privy to Gutfreund's innermost thoughts, but I do know that all the boys on the trading floor gambled and that he wanted badly to be one of the boys. What I think Gutfreund had in mind in this instance was a desire to show his courage, like the boy who leaps from the high dive. Who better than Meriwether for the purpose? Besides, Meriwether was probably the only trader with both the cash and the nerve to play.

The whole absurd situation needs putting into context. John Meriwether had, in the course of his career, made hundreds of millions of dollars for Salomon Brothers. He had an ability, rare among people and treasured by traders, to hide his state of mind. Most traders divulge whether they are making or losing money by the way they speak or move. They are either overly easy or overly tense. With Meriwether you could never, ever tell. He wore the same blank half-tense expression when he won as he did when he lost. He had, I think, a profound ability to control the two emotions that commonly destroy traders, fear and greed,and it made him as noble as a man who pursues his self-interest so fiercely can be. He was thought by many within Salomon to be the best bond trader on Wall Street. Around Salomon no tone but awe was used when he was discussed. People would say, "He's the best businessman in the place," or "the best risk taker I have ever seen," or "a very dangerous Liar's Poker player."

Meriwether cast a spell over the young traders who worked for him. His boys ranged in age from twenty-five to thirty-two (he was about forty). Most of them had Ph.D.'s in math, economics, and/or physics. Once they got onto Meriwether's trading desk, however, they forgot they were supposed to be detached intellectuals. They became disciples. They became obsessed by the game of Liar's Poker. They regarded it as their game. And they took it to a new level of seriousness.

John Gutfreund was always the outsider in their game. That Business Week put his picture on the cover and called him the King of Wall Street held little significance for them. I mean, that was, in a way, the whole point. Gutfreund was the King of Wall Street, but Meriwether was King of the Game. When Gutfreund had been crowned by the gentlemen of the press, you could almost hear traders thinking: Foolish names and foolish faces often appear in public places. Fair enough, Gutfreund had once been a trader, but that was as relevant as an old woman's claim that she was once quite a dish.

At times Gutfreund himself seemed to agree. He loved to trade. Compared with managing, trading was admirably direct. You made your bets and either you won or you lost. When you won, people all the way up to the top of the firm admired you, envied you, and feared you, and with reason: You controlled the loot. When you managed a firm, well, sure you received your quota of envy, fear, and admiration. But for all the wrong reasons. Vou did not make the money for Salomon. You did not take risk. You were hostage to your producers. They took risk. They proved their superiority every day by handling risk better than the rest of the risk-taking world. The money came from risk takers such as Meriwether, and whether it came or not was really beyond Gutfreund's control. That's why many people thought that the single rash act of challenging the arbitrage boss to one hand for a million dollars was Gutfreund's way of showing he was a player, too. And if you wanted to show off, Liar's Poker was the only way to go. The game had a powerful meaning for traders. People like John Meriwether believed that Liar's Poker had a lot in common with bond trading. It tested a trader's character. It honed a trader's instincts. A good player made a good trader, and vice versa. We all understood it.

The Game: In Liar's Poker a group of people as few as two, as many as ten form a circle. Each player holds a dollar bill close to his chest. The game is similar in spirit to the card game known as I Doubt It. Each player attempts to fool the others about the serial numbers printed on the face of his dollar bill. One trader begins by making "a bid." He says, for example, "Three sixes." He means that all told the serial numbers of the dollar bills held by every player, including himself, contain at least three sixes.

Once the first bid has been made, the game moves clockwise in the circle. Let's say the bid is three sixes. The player to the left of the bidder can do one of two things. He can bid higher (there are two sorts of higher bids: the same quantity of a higher number [three sevens, eights, or nines] and more of any number [four fives, for instance]). Or he can "challenge" that is like saying, "I doubt it."

The bidding escalates until all the other players agree to challenge a single player's bid. Then, and only then, do the players reveal their serial numbers and determine who is bluffing whom. In the midst of all this, the mind of a good player spins with probabilities. What is the statistical likelihood of there being three sixes within a batch of, say, forty randomly generated serial numbers? For a great player, however, the math is the easy part of the game. The hard part is reading the faces of the other players. The complexity arises when all players know how to bluff and double-bluff.

The game has some of the feel of trading, just as jousting has some of the feel of war. The questions a Liar's Poker player asks himself are, up to a point, the same questions a bond trader asks himself. Is this a smart risk? Do I feel lucky? How cunning is my opponent? Does he have any idea what he's doing, and if not, how do I exploit his ignorance? If he bids high, is he bluffing, or does he actually hold a strong hand? Is he trying to induce me to make a foolish bid, or does he actually have four of a kind himself? Each player seeks weakness, predictability, and pattern in the others and seeks to avoid it in himself. The bond traders of Goldman, Sachs, First Boston, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and other Wall Street firms all play some version of Liar's Poker. But the place where the stakes run highest, thanks to John Meriwether, is the New York bond trading floor of Salomon Brothers.

The code of the Liar's Poker player was something like the code of the gunslinger. It required a trader to accept all challenges. Because of the code which was his code john Meriwether felt obliged to play. But he knew it was stupid. For him, there was no upside. If he won, he upset Gutfreund. No good came of this. But if he lost, he was out of pocket a million bucks. This was worse than upsetting the boss. Although Meriwether was by far the better player of the game, in a single hand anything could happen. Luck could very well determine the outcome. Meriwether spent his entire day avoiding dumb bets, and he wasn't about to accept this one.

"No, John," he said, "if we're going to play for those kind of numbers, I'd rather play for real money. Ten million dollars. No tears."

Ten million dollars. It was a moment for all players to savor. Meriwether was playing Liar's Poker before the game even started. He was bluffing. Gutfreund considered the counter proposal. It would have been just like him to accept. Merely to entertain the thought was a luxury that must have pleased him well. (It was good to be rich.)

On the other hand, ten million dollars was, and is, a lot of money. If Gutfreund lost, he'd have only thirty million or so left. His wife, Susan, was busy spending the better part of fifteen million dollars redecorating their Manhattan apartment (Meriwether knew this). And as Gutfreund was the boss, he clearly wasn't bound by the Meriwether code. Who knows? Maybe he didn't even know the Meriwether code. Maybe the whole point of his challenge was to judge Meriwether's response. (Even Gutfreund had to marvel at the king in action.) So Gutfreund declined. In fact, he smiled his own brand of forced smile and said, "You're crazy."

No, thought Meriwether, just very, very good.

Zombies need love too

Here is an enchanting Zombie love story.


You will need flash to view it.

Some Close Up Kuwait Satellite Pictures

I was playing around with google maps and here are some places in Kuwait you might recognize:

The Busy Sooq Sharq

The Grand Impressive Amiri Diwan

The unmistakeable Kuwait Towers

The airplane shaped Kuwait Airport

The sky high Liberation Tower

Failaka Island, our own little Hawaii

Enjoy, try finding your house.

Kate Moss Checks out of Rehab

Kate Moss had a cocaine problem with her picture snorting coke splashed across all the tabloids. Because of all the bad press and lost 6 figure contracts, with the likes of H&M, Burberry and Chanel, she went into rehab.

Kate checked in to the Meadows Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona around a month ago. The clinic charges $4,000 a day for treatment. Now she checked out all cleaned up, I guess.

If I ever had a bad habit, I would not need a swanky clinic, just pay me $4,000 every day and I can kick any habit.

Stop Bugging me for registration

Ever followed a news link and you get asked to register first?

It happens a lot to me. A few of these sites even assume they your are in the States and ask for your zip code. I rarely sign up but when I do, and leave the zip code empty, it comes back to me with an error. I don't have a zip code, I am in Kuwait. Anyway, what I do is put in 90210 which is the only correct zip code I remember. It usually also wants your email so it can spam you later. I am straying off the subject. What was I talking about? Ok, I remember.

There is a cool site called bugmenot.com that lets you enter the URL of that registration deprived news sites and suggests a user name and password.

Thank you bugmenot.com. Tell everyone about it and fight forced registration.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

You Should Get a PhD in Science (like chemistry, math, or engineering)

You're both smart and innovative when it comes to ideas. Maybe you'll find a cure for cancer - or develop the latest underground drug.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

Sounds about right, maybe because I liked the answer. Some tests give crazy far off results, this one got it right.

What about you?

Don Veto the Magazine is out, get your copy now

What if you your blog was a magazine, how would the cover look?

Find out here.

Ghosts in the Machine

Strange but interesting. This is a car advertisement from Great Britain.



When they finished filming the ad, the film editor noticed something moving along the side of the car, like a ghostly white mist. They found out that a person had been killed a year earlier in that exact same spot. The ad was never put on TV because of the unexplained ghostly phenomenon.

Watch the front end of the car as it clears the trees in the middle of the screen and you’ll see the white mist crossing in front of the car then following it along the road….Spooky!

Is it a ghost, or is it simply mist? You decide.

If you listen to the ad, you’ll even hear the cameraman whispering in the background about it near the end of the commercial. So turn up the sound!

Video can be found here

Out of the frying pan (and into the fire)

It’s only two o’clock and the temperture’s beginning to soar
And all around the city you see the walking wounded and the living dead
It’s never been this hot and I’ve never been so bored
And breathing is just no fun anymore
And then I saw you like a summer dream
And you’re the answer to every prayer that I ever said
I saw you like a summer dream
And you’re the answer to every prayer that I ever said

You can feel the pulse of the pavement racing like a runaway horse
The subways are steaming and the skin of the street is gleaming with sweat
I’ve seen you sitting on the steps outside
And you were looking so restless and reckless and lost
I think it’s time for you to come inside
I’ll be waiting here with something that you’ll never forget


Come on! come on!
And there’ll be no turning back
You were only killing time and it’ll kill you right back
Come on! come on!
It’s time to burn up the fuse
You’ve got nothing to do and even less to lose

So wander down the ancient hallway
Taking the stairs only one at a time
Follow the sound of my heartbeat now
I’m in the room at the top, you’re at the end of the line
Open the door and lay down on the bed
The sun is just a ball of desire

And I wanna take you out of the frying pan (and into the fire)

Meat Loaf/Jim Steinman

New Template - What do you think?

I got tired of my plain old blogger vanilla template, so I put this one in.

It appeals to the nerd in me, cause its got more stuff on the page. Some pictures got cropped but I will be careful next time I post.

Do you think like a girl or like a boy?

This is a serious test from the BBC, it shows you lots of stuff and lets you select the answer and then tells you if your brain thinks like a girl or boy.

Make sure you are relaxed and have a lot of time(not too much, 20 to 30 min) before you start, and also get a centimeter ruler, you will need that also.

My results are too long, but I can confirm that I think very much like a Man!

I did very good in judging feelings from someone's eyes, which surprised me. I also prefer more feminine faces, which I always knew.

Ready for the test? Start here.

A boy named google

This baby has been called google by his lebanese / swedish father. It is true, I am not joking.




I would call my boy Rolex and my girl Chanel Coco Mademoiselle.

What product would you call your kid?

Web page here and blog here.

Test your knowledge of Islam

Here is a test about Islam from beliefnet.com.

I got all the questions right, and I did not detect any hidden agendas there. Maybe I am not so sharp or so paranoid.

Try it.

What Language Should You Learn?

You Should Learn French

C'est super! You appreciate the finer things in life... wine, art, cheese, love affairs. You are definitely a Parisian at heart. You just need your tongue to catch up...

What Language Should You Learn?

I already speak french. I need another language.

Water Bridge in Germany.... What a feat!

Six years to build, 500 million euros later, 918 meters long.......now this is engineering!

This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin. The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.

That goes to prove that engineers can build anything, just give them some time and throw lots of money their way.

How much is your blog worth?

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

I tested this with some other popular sites that are worth much more, I still got zero, then I read how this calculates worth. AOL just bought weblogs for around $25 million, so what this does it sees how many people are linking to your blog from weblogs and working out your worth from there.

I might not be making money of this blog, but it is fun to share.

Map of Dubai with most Major Projects shown

One word, Amazing!

ASCII Art

In a galazy far far away, actually a few years ago around late 70s to early 80s before we had graphics and super speedy video cards and all the stuff we are used to today, people only had typewriter keyboards and accordion computer paper, but people being visual creatures wanted to see more than letters and numbers. A few enterprising individuals, or people with too much time, painstakingly made some very nice art using only the characters on a keyboard, hence the term ASCII Art.

Here a few nice examples:

                      <>
        .-"""-.       ||::::::==========
       /=      \      ||::::::==========
      |- /~~~\  |     ||::::::==========
      |=( '.' ) |     ||================
      \__\_=_/__/     ||================
       {_______}      ||================
     /` *       `'--._||
    /= .     [] .     { >
   /  /|ooo     |`'--'||
  (   )\_______/      ||
   \``\/       \      ||
    `-| ==    \_|     ||
      /         |     ||
     |=   >\  __/     ||
     \   \ |- --|     ||
      \ __| \___/     ||
 jgs  _{__} _{__}     ||
     (    )(    )     ||
 ^^~  `"""  `"""  ~^^^~^^~~~^^^~^^^~^^^~^^~^



                                   (__
                                   ,_) \_,-/
                                  /__      )__,
                                 )/  _\_    /
                                 /d   \ \   \__
                                /  _.'  /    ( '
                               (,-,) |  |_   |_,
                               ,-.___|_  /_,  /
                               ) .__        )                                 \ \\`-..-    \(`.
                                 \( \_\          `._
                                  \`-,'`.           `-.
                                   `'    `-.__                                                       `,'      |-,._)
                                              !       ,')   `-.
                                              (    ,-'  (   ,-.)
                                               \   \  \ _/   \_
                                                \_ |\_ \`-'._  )
                                                ( ,'( /      )/
                                            __,','__/(
                                       gnv /__(^ 7..1"

          _____
          /    /         /    /          /    /           /    /  /\        /    /  /  \       /    /  /\   \      /    /  /  \   \     /    /__/____\   \    /              \   \   /________________\   \   \_____________________\ / Jugg and Grim

A lot more can be found at the ASCII Art Dictionary.

PC Magazine top 101 sites.

PC Magazine has listed the top 101 sites for fall 2005.

Have a look at the list, I checked out a few sites but did not manage to go through all.

How rich are you?

Have a look at the global rich list calculator, tell it how much you make in 1 year and it will tell you where you rank.

For me, I am numero 1, no just kidding, I am in the top 0.839%. There are 5,949,632,435 people poorer than me and I am the 50,367,565 richest person on earth!

7amdilah.

Friendly Neighbours and Futoor

Your friendly neigbour brings you a sample of their futoor and you just woke up and are not really presentable, you could always do this.

Cute Baby

Cute Baby

and the prize for genius goes to McArabian

The formula in my last post was the first line in working out the Black-Scholes Equation.

McArabian replied that it was the Ito formula, so my first thought was good try but wrong answer. But then I did a little research and found out that Black-Scholes used Ito as its basis.

You might be all falling asleep now, so let me tell you what Black-Scholes is and how you can make mountains of money with it.

The definition below is oversimplified so that I don't get into a boring discourse.

Black Scholes is the model for stock options. Options are financial derivatives that let you own a stock without paying the full price, so instead of buying google (GOOG) at its current price of around $300, you could a google option at $18 and if google rises by $20 (which it could easily do) you end up doubling your money. Double your money a few times and you end with millions.

Of course, there is no such thing as easy money. What black scholes does is tell you what is the proper price for an option, to really understand options you need to understand black scholes. Sometimes option prices go out of sync and when you detect that, you strike and make your money. Major banks and investment houses have powerful computer hardware simulating black scholes again and again and comparing it against current prices, as soon as they detect any misalignment they send out automatic transactions, closing the day with a few millions in their accounts.

Ok, if you want to learn more, google black scholes, my few modest lines are not enough, there are whole books about this.

Math Challenge for all

mishu1984 saw my last post and wanted a more difficult math challenge, so a prize goes to whoever recognizes this formula:

The everyday adventures of Theta

All math nerds that got this, show yourself, post a comment and get recognised.

Nut-cracking gorilla surprises scientists

Scientists are really suprised that gorillas can crack nuts and use tools.

Article here.

I am not surprised, hasn't any of these scientists seen planet of the apes, those gorillas can ride horses, shoot guns, enslave humans and speak in BBC english accents.

I bet all of you can give examples of friends / acquaintances that are dummer than gorillas. So have faith in gorillas, with proper trainning they can propably compete for our jobs.

Agonized Screams

There's a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin' like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play.

I was doing my regular jog every night around the area I live in. There is no formal mamsha but the pavements are brand new, all the houses got fresh manicured gardens and the weather is breezy and cool.

As I approached one house, I could hear from a distance a sound that resembled cats mating. I did not pay attention but as I got nearer to that house, the sound took the shape of painful words.

A man was screeching, "who touched you? tell me, who touched you?". A soft lady's voice, answered, "no one, leave it alone", repeatedly. My heart beat faster and as I got closer to the house, I could see the shape of the man standing near the side entrance towering over the lady and screaming again, "who touched you? Tell me, I am your brother, aaaahhhhaah". The house opposite them had two black shapes watching the commotion from their gate.

I quickened my jogging pace and left the screaming behind me.

The Top Ten Blog Design Mistakes

According to Jakob Nielsen who is a useability expert with many rave reviews and publications, here are the top ten blog design mistakes that you could commit.

1 - No Author Biographies
2 - No Author Photo
3 - Nondescript Posting Titles
4 - Links Don't Say Where They Go
5 - Classic Hits are Buried
6 - The Calendar is the Only Navigation
7 - Irregular Publishing Frequency
8 - Mixing Topics
9 - Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss
10 - Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service

More details about these points can be found here.

Now how do I rate based on the 10 rules:

1) No Author Biographies
Well I got a biography, sort of, in my profile. +1 for me.

2) No Author Photo
I got a teeny tiny photo. +1

3) Nondescript Posting Titles
I try to make my titles meaningful. +1

4) Links Don't Say Where They Go
I hate obscure links, I try to make my links meaningful. +1 (so far so good)

5) Classic Hits are Buried
Don't know if I have any classic posts, I know the Michael Jackson post that I did a while back got a lot of hits. I will give myself a 0 here.

6) The Calendar is the Only Navigation
No navigation for me, other than the date of entry. 0 again.

7) Irregular Publishing Frequency
No set schedule for me also, 0

8) Mixing Topics
My topics are cocktailish, some nerd stuff, some people stuff, some Kuwait pictures, ok 0 again.

9) Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss
I am not writing about anything work related, so I guess I am safe here. +1

10) Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service
I use blogspot, cause this blog is just for fun and will not be IPO'd soon. So 0 for me.

Total score 5 out of 10, barely passed.

But, in my defense and yours, the whole charm of personal blogs is to act like an electronic scrap book, where you post things that you like and want to share. I like to think of it as a shoe box or cork board where you stick all the little fun pieces you come across in life. So forget the rules and post whatever makes you happy.

Maximizing wakefulness and minimizing sleep during Ramadan

During this holy month, your regular sleeping schedule has been changed completely with night becoming awake time.

Well no worries, you can try polyphasic sleep. What this means is that rather than having an extended 8 hour night time sleep, you divide your sleep into 30 minute naps 6 times a day at regular intervals.

People that need to stay awake do polyphasic sleep such as sailors, astronauts, boat racers, inventors, etc.

Quite a few famous people did it also such as Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Napoleon, and Winston Churchill. This method was also popularized on Seinfeld, where the character Cosmo Kramer attempted to adapt to a polyphasic sleeping pattern.

During Ramadan I do not have my sleep neatly divided for polyphasic sleep but I am sleeping 3 times a day rather than the full 8 hour stretch and it is working out very well, with lots of help from my friend Mr. Coffee. How are you sleeping?

More about polyphasic sleep from Wikipedia and Kuro5hin.

Crazy Driving and Car Stickers in Kuwait

With everyone driving crazy in Kuwait especcially at the last 30 minutes before futoor and also the proliferation of car stickers I propose to combine both and have a meaningful car sticker like this:





Prizes or jail time will be distributed at the end of the holy month.

Taken from here.

If you steal some one's mobile you better learn a new walk

Finnish scientists have invented a device to make it harder to steal mobile phones and laptops by enabling them to detect changes in their owner's walking style and then freeze to prevent unauthorised use.




So if you steal a mobile from Chuck Berry, you better learn how to duck walk and play "johnny B good".



Maybe the person you swiped the mobile from is a sloucher, you better practice walking like a slob.



You could have taken the mobile from your super model friend, you better practice walking with a book on your head.



Maybe Michael Jackson has that fancy new Nokia mobile that you crave, you better learn how to moonwalk.

Article is here.

Bought a Nano? Need a quick cheap case to avoid those scratches? Try this

You bought am iPod Nano now you need to protect your nano from random scratches, here is a quick solution and a very good way to camouflage your nano if you are listening to your music at work or any where else that is innapropriate.

Here.

Secret Bookshelf

I always though secret bookshelves with pivoting books, that open secret doors where intriguing and interesting and I always wished I could have one in my house.

Simon Shea from Australia built himself a secret bookshelf that you can see right here.

Have a look:



Normal Bookshelf


Pull Book


Secret Door



More details and how all this works can be can be found at Simon's entry in his blog.

Stock tips from spam email.

In these days of the Kuwait Stock Market going sky high where even turkeys can fly, you must be getting stock tips from friends, family, and strangers about the next hot stock. Well do your due diligence otherwise you are going to lose a lot of money.

This site tracked all the stock tips he got from spam email, he did not actually buy those stocks, just tracked how well he would have done if he did. Interesting.

Macgyver for President

Who remembers Macgyver? He was that laid-back, extremely resourceful ex-special forces secret agent named Angus "Mac" MacGyver.

MacGyver's main asset is his practical application of scientific knowledge and inventive use of common items – along with his ever-present Swiss Army knife and duct tape and the usual coincidence of being locked up in a room full of special chemicals.

This allows him to create a variety of unorthodox solutions, usually to escape capture, avert disaster, or defeat the antagonists. The use of mundane items to build jury-rigged devices shows an influence from The A-Team (though MacGyver eschewed the use of firearms) and has entered U.S. popular culture and are referred to as "MacGyverisms".

Well he is running for president, if Aahnold can make it as governor, why not MacGyver?

How many of you had a MacGyver moment?

I wish I could say I built a helicopter from a wire hanger and an old newspaper and a few pieces of wood, but I never did.

Chinese astronauts and how they live in space

Here is an article about Chinese astronauts that made me laugh, it is serious article but funny nonetheless. Some funny pieces:

Chen said the foodstuff can be classified into staple food and nonstaple food. Rice will be the major staple food, with 140 grams of rice packed into a vacuum bag to be warmed by a heater.

Rice in zero gravity! They are going to be busy chasing pieces of floating rice all over their space capsule or the alternative is sucking rice through a straw or drinking mashed rice. Hmm, let me try putting my machboos in the blender and see how it tastes.
Reminds me of Kuwaiti families when they travel and pack that 5eshat 3esh (sack of rice) in their suitcase because London / Switzerland / New York / (choose your favorite capital) do not have any rice.

A sleeping bag has been arranged for the Shenzhou-6 spacecraft.

It is hooked on the wall of the vessel's orbit module. The astronauts will sleep by turns, one at rest and the other on duty.

You must share your sleeping bag with your partner and use it in turns! I am not going to say any more but I think you all understand that you might be sharing more than what you bargained for. I don't think they got tubs and showers in the space capsule.

Under the microgravity conditions, they may sleep standing, sitting or lying. When they sleep, they should put their arms inside the sleeping bag and tie their hands on their chests, so as not to touch equipment switches accidentally.

You need to tie your hands otherwise you might hit the wrong button, like self destruct, open sun roof (then get sucked out into space) or maybe change the TV channel and piss off your partner.

During their five-day space travel, Fei and Nie will take off the astronautic suits to enter the orbiter from the re-entry module. In the microgravity environment, they will take on and off the suits in 10 minutes, Li Tanqiu said.

10 Minutes to get dressed! I can put on my dishdasha and ghutra in less than 5 minutes if I am late for work.
I suggest they invent a space dishdasha, they can wear that faster.

New iPod Revealed

After all the suspense and hype, the new iPod is a video ipod, it has a bigger screen and a thinner body and can play video files that you load up in your itunes, or probably buy. I still don't know if you can rip DVDs but that would be cool also.

Pictures follow, source is here.

Ever had one of these days

Reminds me of Daniel Powter's song:

"Bad Day"

Where is the moment we needed the most
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost
They tell me your blue skies fade to grey
They tell me your passion's gone away
And I don't need no carryin' on

You stand in the line just to hit a new low
You're faking a smile with the coffee to go
You tell me your life's been way off line
You're falling to pieces everytime
And I don't need no carryin' on

Cause you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day

Well you need a blue sky holiday
The point is they laugh at what you say
And I don't need no carryin' on

You had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day

(Oh.. Holiday..)

Sometimes the system goes on the blink
And the whole thing turns out wrong
You might not make it back and you know
That you could be well oh that strong
And I'm not wrong

So where is the passion when you need it the most
Oh you and I
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost

Cause you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
You've seen what you like
And how does it feel for one more time
You had a bad day
You had a bad day

Had a bad day

Read this and amaze yourself

Archmides

Remember Archmides, he was the foremost scientist in the world. He was commissioned by the king (not Elvis) to find out if a gold crown the king bought was truly gold (and not some Chinese knock off). Archimides racked his brains day and night and could not think of any way of doing that without cutting up the crown into little pieces. One day, Archimedes was taking a bath and he noticed the bath water rising up as he sank in the water. He realized that water would rise with equal volume to the body that was submerged in it.

Archmides realized that this discovery would help him tell if the crown was truly gold by working out the density ( = mass / volume ). Anyways, Archimedes was so happy he jumped out of the bath and ran down the streets of Alexandria butt naked shouting Eureka (I found it). He probably was very famous at the time otherwise he would have spent 1 night in the slammer (na'6ara) if he wasn't.

Archimedes was also famous for developing a death ray to burn down ships. It was though to be a myth or legend, but some students at MIT went ahead to prove if it was possible. Here is a link showing the progress of their experiment.

Dubai - Wow

Have a look, amazing and in only 14 years.

Hello, where are you ?

You are out of the house and you get a call on your mobile from your father / mother / brother / sister / cousin / uncle / friend / fake friend / etc.

What is the first thing that they say after hello?:

where are you ? / wenik / fenik / where the #@!& are you ? or different combinations.

Well the rocket scientists at Microsoft are putting an end to this question, they are working on a display that shows exactly where you are. They will not be using GPS, your mobile signals will be enough to show where you are.

They got their inspiration from the Weasley clock in one of the Harry Potter movies that shows where all the members of the Weasley family are.

As an Engineer I can tell you that your mobile is reporting your current location several times a second whether you are talking on the mobile (dedicated mode) or not talking (idle mode). Your mobile is not saying you are sitting in the Salmiyah Costa having an espresso, rather it is reporting that you are 2 km from of Sultan Center and 1 km from the Fanar Complex and 500 meters from Friday's and 100 meters from Zahra complex. Then with a little trigonometry, someone can work out within 200 m accuracy where you are! if you are stationary or what speed you are moving! And if you are travelling, it can tell you which country you are in!

Cool! or maybe frightening! you decide.



You can find the article here.

More Cool and Crazy Furniture

Now this one is a really crazy piece of furniture. Makes the phrase "ga3da a6ba5" true.



The concept here is that you would not be sitting and cooking at the same time. Would this work for Kuwait? and where would you put the gas cylinder? Maybe you can use it as a headrest?

I see a new market for soft fluffy gas cylinders if this takes off.

You can find the link here.

cool furniture I would love to have

I have plenty of space in my house but I still love furniture that is space efficient and is more than what it appears. Maybe it is my personality? Or maybe it is the kid in me that wants rotating walls, secret rooms, and hidden staircases.

Anyway, here is a real strange looking book shelve that squeezes in a chair and small table.






Another cool piece is the Titanic lamp:



You can get bigger pictures here, and the designer's site is here.

I wonder if Ghulam, the Coop / Jam3iya carpenter can build me that library?

Best Movie Scene Ever - Scent of a Woman

Who remembers this movie scene from "Scent of a Woman" ? This is the best movie scene ever made.

---

Frank: Excuse me, Senorita. Do you mind if we join you? I'm feelin' you're being neglected
Donna: Well, I'm expecting somebody.
Frank: Instantly?
Donna: No, but any minute now.
Frank: Any minute? Some people live a lifetime in a minute. What are you doing right now?
Donna: I'm waiting for him.
Frank: Would you mind if we waited with you? You know, just to keep the womanizers from bothering you.
Donna: No, I don't mind.
Frank: Thank you. Charlie. You know, I detect a fragrance in the air. Don't tell me what it is. Ogivile Sisters soap.
Donna: Ah, that's amazing.
Frank: I'm in the amazing business.
Donna: It's Ogivile Sister soap. My grandmother gave me three bars for Christmas.
Frank: Oh I'm crazy about your grandmother. You know I think she'd have liked Charlie, too.
Charlie: Don't pay attention to him.
Frank: What's your name?
Donna: Donna.
Frank: Donna? I'm Frank. This here is…
Donna: This is Charlie.
Frank: Yes, she likes you. Charlie's having a difficult weekend, he's going through a crisis. How does he look like he's holding up?
Donna: I think he looks fine to me.
Frank: Oh, she does like you, Charlie. So Donna, ahh… do you Tango?
Donna: No I wanted to learn once, but…
Frank: But?
Donna: But Michael didn't want to.
Frank: Michael, the one you are waiting for.
Donna: Michael thinks the Tango's hysterical.
Frank: Well, I think Michael's hysterical.
Charlie: Don't pay any attention to him. Did I already say that?
Frank: What a beautiful laugh!
Donna: Thank you, Frank.
Frank: Would you like to learn Tango, Donna?
Donna: Right now?
Frank: I'm offering you my services… free of charge. What do you say?
Donna: Ah… I think I'd be a little of afraid.
Frank: Of what?
Donna: Afraid of making a mistake.
Frank: No mistakes in the Tango, Donna, not like life. It's simple, that's what makes the Tango so great. If you make a mistake, get all tangled up, just Tango on. Why don’t you try? Will you try it?
gonna: All right. I'll give it a try.

---

I especially like the part when Al Pacino says "Some people live a lifetime in a minute.", did you ever have a single minute moment that was worth the whole year? Well that is exactly how I understand Al Pacino meant when he said that.

The Story of Uma Thurman and Her Search for Hapiness

A long time ago, when Uma was a little younger and less wise, she got involved in a bad group of friends called the DIVAS headed by Bill who was bad news also. Then she wanted to get married and Bill and his bad friends came and ruined the wedding which was not very nice of him.

Bad Uma

Uma was so shocked she went to the hospital and stayed there for a few years, her heart was broken and had the small problem of being shot in the head also. As soon as she felt better she checked out of the hospital and decided to travel the world.

For her travels, she wanted something fashionable to make her feel better, not an LV bag, or Chanel bag, that was so last year for her. She went to Hatori Hanso in Okinawa, Japan who made her a very lovely Samurai Sword, it was real useful too, she could slice apples with it and baseballs with it. She could shorten silk scarves with it also.

Fashionable Sword

She wanted to see her old DIVAS friends and talk about old times.

She travelled to Tokyo, where she found Lucy Liu. Lucy was frequenting this night club. The meeting did not go too well, she got in an argument with Lucy and ended up breaking a few tables and lots of hurt feelings.

Lucy Liu admiring Uma's fashionable sword

She then heads back to Pasadena, California to find Vivica Fox who really did well and had married a doctor. Vivica gave Uma some attititude so they argue again and it ends badly with lots of hurt feelings and a some broken glass also.

Uma and Vivica having a heart to heart talk

Uma, lonely for friends goes to Bill's brother, Michael Madsen who is living in a trailer. Michael feels sorry for Uma also but can't help arguing with her, and because of his drinking problem it gets a little violent. Uma manages to get out of that problem too and dusts herself off.

Michael Madsen

Uma goes back to Michael trailer and finds Daryl Hannah, one of her old DIVAS friends there also arguing with Michael. Uma, so happy to see a familiar face rushes to Daryl. But Daryl was always jealous of Uma because Bill liked Uma more than her. Another argument starts. The straw that broke the camel's back was when Daryl wanted to have her Hatori Hanso sword. Uma, now really angry, tells her, "even if you offer me your eye, you will not get my sword", Uma leaves with her sword.

Daryl Hannah, Uma's ex friend

Uma goes looking for Bill, she finds him expecting her. She wanted to make peace with Bill and Bill was nice and charming at first telling her stories about day's past.Bill also had a little surprise for her.

Bill

He was taking care of Uma's four year old daughter which she thought she had lost. That was sweet of him. But they argue again, Uma leaves in a rage but taking her cute daughter with her.

Uma with her Daughter

Uma did really well for herself after those unfortunate episodes, I saw her on TV yesterday at a fashion show and when asked by the paparazzi,"What are you doing these days", she replied, "I just do my best to be happy".