I’m the type of person that really hates the smell of cigarette smoke, I detest it, I’m the guy that enforces non-smoking at work and at home and if friends are over. Sheesha is just a whole other category, and the producers of the tobacco out of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi, and Kuwait are not regulated for any healthy regulations at all such as cigarette manufacturing companies, not that those are better either. Sheesha is a whole different matter all together, the smell of a sheesha makes my stomach turn, the stench at those cafe’s makes me dizzy.

There is very little research about the effects of sheesha on one’s lungs but now BBC has published some interesting information about Sheesha being more damaging to people then heavy smokers of cigarettes. High levels of carbon monoxide can lead to brain damage and unconsciousness, and that results from cigarettes and sheesha but with sheesha its a lot higher concentration from one session. People have this misconception that its safer since its being filter through the water but that isn’t really the case. Strangely these days there are more and more women smoking sheesha then before, for Lebanese, Egyptian, and Syrian women its more a norm but lately in the Gulf you see more women smoking then before which is surprising. This is even happening in Western Cities such as London, New York, Los Angles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Miami, all these new Sheesha/Hookah bars popping up all over the place even with the smoking bans in place, permits can be acquired. It isn’t nice seeing a girl smoke a sheesha, and for me seeing a girl smoke a cigarette is a huge turn off, there breath would stink afterward, and a lot of guys have the same opinion, pretty much anyone who smokes and has that smoker’s breath is disgusting, and covering it up with perfume just isn’t really working.

(Couldn’t help the picture though)

Link: BBC News

The worldwide leader in family entertainment is about to get a great deal more entertaining, as the Walt Disney Company agrees to acquire iconic comic book company Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion.

Now this is an interesting development, after all these years of rebuidling the brand Marvel went ahead for a sale. Comics as many know were having a tough time over the last decade, it wasn’t like it used to be and then Comics were losing ground to a lot of different media and a lot to Manga but they made it big with Spiderman and X-Men, from there they expanded. The easy part for them is that they already had the storyline and depth to make this amazing movies and so many in the horizon, and I think they made a great business move to sell while they are on top. Disney does have a lot to offer and they do have some interesting ideas, I just hope they don’t change the direction that Marvel Universe is heading in or slow down any development of the upcoming movies.

Link: Kotaku

We all know that the searches performed at Airports in the US aren’t random but most of us who travel there tend to accept it as the cost of going and don’t really mind, but not this is going a little overboard. Homeland Security just passed a new directive that these border patrol people can search your digital media, meaning that they can switch on your computer and go through your data, and make copies of your data if they see it as necessary. That includes photo and video data on your camera or video camera, they can store that as well. And this is all based on their discretion, this is for domestic and international flights, so you are at the mercy of government agents who are at the bottom of the food chain being paid very little. The bad part is that the decision is left to these people which I think will be a catastrophic. Just for those who don’t know, if they find any copyrighted data such as movies or TV shows they might act on it. So I think its a time for people to get a little tech savvy in keeping their private data private.

Link: DigitalTrends

This is crazy, its more like a movie then a real robbery, these guys execute the robbery with bravado. They call themselves the Pink Panthers and they executed these elaborate heists, and take off with film like escape plans.

The Cartier store in Cannes, France has been the latest victim of the “Pink Panthers” gang. A group of armed robbers in Hawaiian shirts converged on the store in the French Riviera on Monday. The ringleader pulled out a handgun and directed everyone to lie on the floor. His accomplices made quick work of the jewels, watches and other luxury goods in the store and then the entire team took off on motorbikes.

The Pink Panthers earned their nickname in 1993 by stealing a huge diamond from jewelers in London’s Mayfair area and hiding it in a jar of face cream similar to the method used in the original Peter Sellers movie. It is believed that members of the gang are former soldiers from eastern Europe. They are known for their feats of daring which are almost cinematic in nature. In 2005 they struck at a jeweler in Saint Tropez and made their getaway by boat. The gang is thought to be a loose network of maybe 200 or so people which has made attempts at capture difficult for law enforcement.

Link: Luxist

This is a heart wrenching story of a little girl who had her last wish granted by Pixar. Cancer has spread exponentially over the globe, there are some cases that can be solved and some cases that can’t. With Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old girl suffering from terminal vascular cancer, told her mom that she wanted to live to see Pixar’s Up, and her case worsened so she wasn’t able to see the movie ‘Up’ during the opening weekend. After frantic calls from friends and family to Pixar and Disney, Pixar answered the call and granted the little girl’s wish. Several hours after watching the movie Colby Curtin passed away. Pixar did an amazing thing to grant her this wish on the last day and fly somebody out to her home with a DVD of the movie to watch. Please read the whole story in the OC Register link.

Link: OC Register
Link: Cinematical

228 people from Brazil to France on an Air France flight has vanished over the Atlantic after flying into turbulence. I haven’t seen a tragedy such as this in a long time, a flight of this type crashing in the middle of the Atlantic. Brazil sent out their Air Force to search the ocean, while France sent out rescue planes on their route as well as requesting help from US to use their Satellites to pinpoint the probable location of the crash. My prayers goes out to the family of the passengers and crew.

Link: BBC

The brand spanking new Airbus 340-600, the largest passenger airplane ever built, sat in its hangar in Toulouse, France, without a single hour of airtime. Enter an Arab flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine run-ups, prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi. The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area. Theyn then took all four engines to takeoff power with a virtually empty aircraft. Not having read the run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an empty A340-600 is.

The takeoff warning horn was blaring away in the cockpit because they had all 4 engines at full power. The aircraft computers thought they were trying to take off, but the aircraft had not been configured properly (flaps/slats, etc.) Then one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the circuit breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensor to silence the alarm. This fooled the aircraft into thinking it was in the air.

The computers automatically released all the brakes and set the aircraft rocketing forward. The ADAT crew had no idea that this is a safety feature so that pilots can’t land with the brakes on. Not one member of the seven-man Arab crew was quick enough to throttle back the engines from their max power setting, so the $200 million brand-new aircraft crashed into a blast barrier, totaling the airplane.The extent of injuries to the crew is unknown for there has been a news blackout in the major media in France and elsewhere.

Coverage of the story was deemed insulting to Muslim Arabs. Finally, the photos are starting to leak out.

Pictures speak louder then words, but this is pretty shocking, the pilots from Abu Dhabi managed to crash a brand new airplane because they didn’t bother reading the manual. Details aren’t out regarding this crash, and I got the pictures by email. Based on the pictures I wonder how they survived the crash.

Update: Turns out this is a two year old crash, check comments for details

I don’t know if there is any truth to the matter, but I have been hearing that a shooting took place last night at the Avenues at around 10:30 pm. A bearded man with a AK-47 walked into the mall from the cinema side and started shooting, there were reports of multiple police cars and ambulances at the sight but nothing in the news papers. Today the IKEA side is closed off, any one know any other information since nothing was reported in the news.

Update: Was a hoax! Turned out it was a fake call!

I read up on this every once in a while, but these pictures are eerie and amazing at the same time. You always hear people say pictures are worth a thousand words, I think these pictures speak a lot about the Drug War. This is one amazing photographer or photographers who took these pictures, check out the link for more pictures.

Link: TheBigPicture

There was a lot of Oscar buzz from the beginning about this movie and a lot of people loved this movie. I haven’t seen it yet, but it won almost every award. The sad thing is the kids have gone back home after all the glitz and glamour, and the only thing waiting for them there is the slums. 

The money they made from this movie is a trust fund for the boy and girl, and will be available once they are of legal age but right now they can’t access that money and their parents can’t either. It is fact that the kids will not benefit from the money in the long run if they have it now since their families will take advantage, it is a complex situation. Its heart breaking to see how these kids are living after the Oscars, check out the link below. 

Link: Cinematical