1701 Balloons. [Truth or Paranoia]
A little while ago, we heard about a possible breach of UN resolution 1701 in southern Lebanon. More specifically, in the southern village of Nabatieh.It was reported that "Balloons drifting from Israel into southern Lebanon sparked a panic among villagers over the weekend amid rumors they were filled with poison gas". After finding the balloons in his backyard, a villager and his family manifested symptoms of poisoning and were treated as such at the hospital. The reporter covering the incident, also showed the same symptoms, and in her turn, was treated at the hospital.
Could it be real? Could it be pure paranoia generated by the Hebrew typography found on the colorful balloons?
Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV, claimed the balloons contained toxic gas and had been dropped by Israeli military aircraft, while Dr. Suleiman, an intensive care doctor at the hospital, said that although the patients complained of symptoms that are consistent with exposure to toxic gases, blood and urine tests did not reveal exposure to such gases.
"We have no explanation for it""Reports that balloons with Hebrew letters had popped up around Lebanon continued Monday, with one TV station reporting that balloons had appeared in Beirut. The report could not be immediately confirmed""The Israeli daily Haaretz reported Sunday that helium balloons from a promotional event by Ha'ir, a chain of local newspapers, had floated north over the border into Lebanon.Still, their appearance spread alarm among Lebanese — a sign of the tensions and suspicion that remain in the border region after last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah that devastated much of the south.
Here's my suggestion:
Erect another giant wall with sensors, lasers and such. Then issue passports for birds of all kinds. A Hassoun [local bird known for its beautiful colors and "voice"] can not eat from a tree in Northern Israel, and then cross the border to South Lebanon without being searched... and I mean cavity search.
What insolence!
Read the full article here.
Labels: 3_squares, politics, sketches
On Friendship, Globalization, and Freedoms in China.
Many websites, amongst which are our blogs, were banned in China a while ago; up until now...
My friend just sent me this note from Shanghai.
I also pasted our stupid ramblings over MSN tonight. hope it is not too embarrassing.
_z.
----
Dude,
Good news, at least temporarily.... I'm finally able to check out your blog.
As you may have heard, an earthquake in December off the coast of Taiwan had severed connections to North American servers. For the last month, we couldn't not access much... only 10% of North American websites and servers were available... no CNN, no MSN, Hotmail sucked, as did our servers.
Well, over the weekend, they finally finished restoring the connections, and everything is back to "normal" (as well as the word "normal" can be used in this country). But it seems that they "over-fixed" the problem: websites that we previously had no access to, are now accessible. That's right, dem Z's thought can finally be heard on the other side of the Pacific. The Chinese government now has to start the process of "re-blocking" all of the websites they don't want seen here (ie, anything that involves people expressing their own opinions, thought, and feelings; any news article about China that is written from OUTSIDE of China; anything generally anti-Chinese / anti-Commie; anything with sex or violence; any online gambling sites; any sites expressing creativity, ingenuity, progressiveness...., well, you get the picture).
So, until that's done, I've been trying to get my fix of Z in while it lasts. I was going to post something on the site, but the "post a comment" pop-up page is all in Chinese (except for the actual comments that your peeps posted). Anyways, you got some deep stuff on there, holmes. Keep up the good work.
Respect,
dem RPBs.
----
Ryan says:
you still @ the office?
_z. says:
dems a touching email you left me holmes
Ryan says:
I'm a touching guy
_z. says:
snaps homes dems was wicked
Ryan says:
what you been up to?
_z. says:
been cool
_z. says:
illin
Ryan says:
aight
_z. says:
you?
Ryan says:
same old
Ryan says:
been illin with dem Kennas last weekend
_z. says:
oh yeah. she submitted the new project. we bitched crazy hours on that project yo!
_z. says:
crazy
Ryan says:
you been workin for her?
_z. says:
for 2 weeks. 1 straight
Ryan says:
dang
_z. says:
the final round was all Helene's though
Ryan says:
yeah she said the presentation in december went kick-ass
_z. says:
I had to move on and focus on local projects
Ryan says:
but the one last week not so much
_z. says:
oh snap. how come. i thought we nailed it
Ryan says:
she just didn't get a good feeling
Ryan says:
but its hard to say here with these clients
Ryan says:
and the best team doesn't necessarily win competitions
_z. says:
tell me about it.
_z. says:
i like your display picture... you becoming zen and shit
Ryan says:
and you be smokin again
_z. says:
yeah well... I'll quit again soon.
Ryan says:
aight
Ryan says:
disciplined... that's me boy
_z. says:
show some compassion bro. I had a war back home
_z. says:
(blame it on the war)
Ryan says:
i hear that
Ryan says:
my regards...
_z. says:
hehe
Ryan says:
for real
_z. says:
dude! permission to post your email on my blog.
_z. says:
dems hot yo!
Ryan says:
permission......
Ryan says:
granted
_z. says:
oh snap. that's hot
_z. says:
easy bureaucracy
Ryan says:
why dems so hot. dems just an email
_z. says:
dems touchy bro.
Ryan says:
saying whats up to me bro
_z. says:
I felt it
_z. says:
I be missing you and shit
Ryan says:
awwww
Ryan says:
right back at ya
_z. says:
cheers mate.
_z. says:
dude... what if I post the email. and the Chinese government finds out. they get to read it and shit.
_z. says:
and then they block that shit right out again.
Ryan says:
fuck em
_z. says:
oh snap!
Ryan says:
do you know how much bad shit is written about china
Ryan says:
that we don't gets to hear about
Ryan says:
maybe this'll open up peoples eyes here
_z. says:
I'll be responsible for relinquishing Chinese freedom of thoguth
_z. says:
*thought
Ryan says:
it needs it
Ryan says:
The Man is keeping everyone down here
Ryan says:
you gotta stick it to The Man
_z. says:
heheh you gotta join the school of rock
Ryan says:
Step Off!!!!
_z. says:
I just downed a bowl of red cherries bro!
_z. says:
it was heavenly
Ryan says:
Step off!! Step Off!!!
_z. says:
I trip on cherries man
Ryan says:
damn
Ryan says:
whats in em?
_z. says:
dems for real bro
Ryan says:
coo
Ryan says:
dem cherries be crazy expensive here
_z. says:
in china?
Ryan says:
like 25 bucks for a little container
Ryan says:
fo reals. dems like 25x more expensive than a hooker
_z. says:
well yeah but you can get like cherry flavored tea and shit right!
Ryan says:
yeah, but dems not real cherries
Ryan says:
china doesn't grow their own cherries
Ryan says:
they all imported
_z. says:
what dems magic cherries?
Ryan says:
nah dems from Washington
_z. says:
what do you think cherries grow on Mont Tremblant?
_z. says:
oh snap... do they?
Ryan says:
yeah, but free trade between Canada and US, bro
Ryan says:
china taxes the fuck outta anything nice
_z. says:
oh shit what's up with that Starbucks opening up in the heart of the forbidden city
Ryan says:
really? never heard that
_z. says:
I read it a couple of days earlier.
Ryan says:
ha. doesn't surprise me
_z. says:
there's a Starbucks open in the forbidden city
Ryan says:
the gov will do anything to earn a buck
Ryan says:
no pun intended
_z. says:
Medusa be going red yo!
Ryan says:
their probably charging the Starbucks corp an arm and a leg to rent the space
_z. says:
i am sure they are
_z. says:
and he doesn't care anyway. as long as he's there
Ryan says:
everybody here has flexible moral standards
_z. says:
true dat
Ryan says:
they can talk forever about right and wrong, but when money is on the table, ideals don't exists
_z. says:
speaking of money. we received a budget cut today on one of the projects.
_z. says:
1 million dollars.
Ryan says:
dang
_z. says:
tsk tsk tsk.. i say it like doctor evil
Ryan says:
dems a china project?
Ryan says:
where dems?
_z. says:
nah bro. dems in the 514
_z. says:
oh snap bro. I am going to post this conversation too.
Ryan says:
aight.
Labels: globalization, msn, ramblings
Political Suicide.
Labels: 3_squares, politics, sketches
It's About Time.
please watch!
Joe sent me this chilling, goosebump inflicting, video Here.
[with english subtitles]
Labels: clips, patriotism, politics
Political Chocolate
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- What’s wrong Emily? You called me?- Weird things keep happening to me. The other day I was eating a pack of Smarties, those tasty Chocolate pills you bought me. I rushed a bunch into my mouth… You know… like I saw you do the other day. A couple of pebbles fell to the floor. They were the orange pebbles.... What’s even weirder, is that every time I tried to put them back in my mouth, they fell again to the floor.
And I had a similar incident a couple of days earlier, when I was eating m&ms. I kept choking on the orange m&m.
It’s like I can’t swallow orange anymore! What is happening to me?
- Haha that’s normal! You’re healthy. You shouldn’t be eating any orange bullshit.
- Does that happen to you too?
- Of course. I don’t eat the color orange either.
- And Yellow?
- I stopped a long time ago.
- So what should I eat?
- Don’t worry too much about color. Focus on taste. In the end, they are all the same.
- But why are they all in different colors. It’s confusing.
- So you can be able to tell them apart; that’s sectarianism for you.
- What’s sectarianism?
- It is when you chose your chocolate by color and not by taste.
- And they all taste the same?
- Yes they are all the same chocolate.
- So why use colors then?
- Ahhhh…. I wish everyone was as sweet as you!
- So you’re saying I am sweet!
- But of course you are Em.
- Hihihi… good.
- Good night.
Labels: a trip with Emily
Slow Jams.
We used to wait for Saturday nights.
Every Saturday we would go out clubbing. Most of us did not even have cars, and our parents used to drive us (Public Transportation in Lebanon is not that elaborate). The ambiance in the clubs used to be very dim, dark and dull. We would dance to weird ass songs, order colorful cocktails (Jamaica sans alcohol please), and a coke to back it up. [Just in case, you never know]At the end of the night, the DJ would bestow on us slow songs. It was the moment we all waited to “legitimately” touch our partners; our partners being of course of the opposite sex (you couldn’t be gay back then). We get close, we whisper, we touch and caress. We sometimes French kiss.Then we each go to their home (with a little stop somewhere along the way). We call each other the next day. …Now male or female, we have sex, smoke up, and go have dinner. Then we smoke up some more, and go for drinks. We then pop a pill and go dancing in an after-hour. We have sex while dancing, and smoke up some more to relax. We Dance.Pass by the greasiest 1-star restaurant in town, and eat the meanest sandwich ever. We go back home, have sex, and sleep.We wake up two days later, with a hard on. …And to hell with Saturday nights!
Labels: memories_ nostalgia
Can't Touch This.
So is this my future Computer? [In my Lifetime I hope]
watch the whole movie if you have time, it is really freaky what the
next generation of technology is bringing our way. If this computer
was affordable and available to the public, my life would have been
much easier.
HERE is the demonstration for this awesome prototype computer. I had to remove the embedded clip; It was starting automatically in the page, and that bugged the heck out of me.
Read the full article here, to find out who invented this awesome touch screen computer.
Hats off to the dudes.
[Delayed] Time-bomb.
I came back from Lebanon yesterday. I was expecting to be in a crappy shape and a depressed state of mind.
I am sad, but relatively ok.
Maybe it is because my sister is here with me now.
Or maybe it is because I know I am going to see her again in 5 months.
And if all goes well, she is going to be sharing my every hour, 6 months from now. I was fine... but I watched Zozo a while ago. ....
I heard my mother’s voice calling me. Waking me up after she had done all she could to lock out every noise and every ray of light; so that I can sleep more.
And I saw my father's smile, and I could have sworn I heard him laugh. ....
I felt her body press against mine; I felt her lips on my neck.
I saw her play the violin.I heard her breathe. ....Like a fucking time-bomb, nostalgia exploded in my face!
....
I miss home; and I want to go back.
Labels: memories.
Back in Quebec.
I am back in Montreal as of yesterday, and this is what was keeping me from Blogging in Beirut. I don't know how you guys do it. I have a whole new respect to Bloggers posting from Lebanon.
Labels: Greetings
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