Mind Soup

AUB Carpooling is a very impressive campaign by the Greenpeace club at AUB . ( Facebook event ) The AUB Carpooling activity allows students, faculty and staff the ability to conserve energy while making new friends. Stuck in traffic jams and not finding a parking space? Paying a lot for fuel and parking? Bored of driving alone to and from AUB? Tired of coming and leaving by taxi? Carpooling is what you need! Not only is this a good idea and helps reduce pollution, it also reduces traffic, saves money and possibly creates friendships. I really hope that AUB helps in investing and promoting this project (but they probably won't until media start talking about it as usual.) You can read more details about this in The Daily Star , excerpt below: Erik Zakhia, a third year mechanical engineering student and president of the Greenpeace AUB Club, which is independent from the national branch of the global environmental NGO, came up with the idea when he saw that the faculty o...

Rami Chemali and his mother BLOGBALADI : A [couple of months] ago, Rami Chemali , a Lebanese national and Star Academy participant, was killed in a car accident in Egypt. Mahmoud Shukri, Rami’s friend and also part of Star Academy was severely injured. Rumors spread that Rami was the one driving and a week ago, Rami’s mother pledged to sue Shukri’s family for falsely accusing her son of being the one responsible of the accident. Now the question is why don’t the Lebanese authorities bother to investigate the issue further? And how come no updates on the accident were heard since then? Is someone trying to hide the truth? On a final note, I found more pictures of Rami Chemali on an Israeli site than on all other Arab websites. Now why would Israeli websites be interested that much in a Lebanese star? And how did they get “Copyright” pictures of his funeral? "You will remain in our hearts" Related post: Rami Chemali from Star Academy 7 dead at 23 (moudz.blogsp...

And I thought we've got it bad in Lebanon. Apparently, in China its far worse. Photo Credits: AFP According to Associate Press on Monday, thousands of cars were stuck on the road in a 100-kilometer (62-mile) traffic jam leading to Beijing that has lasted nine days. "The Beijing-Tibet expressway slowed to a crawl on August 14 due to a spike in traffic by cargo-bearing heavy trucks heading to the capital, and compounded by road maintenance work that began five days later," the Global Times said. The state-run newspaper said the jam between Beijing and Jining city had "given birth to a mini-economy with local merchants capitalizing on the stranded drivers' predicament by selling them water and food at inflated prices." That stretch of highway linking Beijing with the northern province of Hebei and the Inner Mongolia region has become increasingly prone to massive jams as the capital of more than 20 million people sucks in huge shipments of goods. ...

SWNS :  Petrol-head Gurcharn Sahota charges a staggering £7,200 for Britain ’s most expensive car wash which he does – from his PARENTS’ GARAGE. Car-nut Gurcharn, 30, has a string of celebrity clients and takes up to 250 HOURS to clean each motor. He has cleaned hundreds of dream machines including a Lamborghini Gallardo (pictured), Bugatti Veyron and an orange McLaren F1 GTR worth £5 million. Since he started the business five years ago he has travelled the world with his hi-tech kit which includes a microscope, 100 cleaning fluids and £8,200 car wax. Gurcharn charges customers up to £7,200 for a wash which includes polishing and buffing every inch of the car inside and out – FIVE times. He even uses a computerised microscope – normally used by forensic scientists – to examine the body work for the minutest scratch not even visible to the naked eye. Gurcharn, who drives an iconic MK1 Volkswagen Golf GTi, started his passion for cleaning by washing his neighbours’ cars...

Photo: Mind Soup© I encountered the funniest thing today. While walking alongside the American University Hospital with my friend, I was joking how hospitals don't have valet parking. That didn't last long. A few seconds later, we see a sign for VALET PARKING on the side of the road. Well it might be a good idea for the emergency division where people don't have the time to find a parking, but to think about it clearly, are we really that lazy? Lazy to the extent of having someone park the car at a hospital? And its not cheap either. Personally, I believe that our culture should depend more on one's self. This type of laziness is what is holding us back from actually achieving something. It is enough that we are bringing maids to our homes to cook the meals and raise up the children, but this? How low can we get? Next thing you know, people will start hiring professionals to help them go to the bathroom or shower. What do you guys think?

OUR MAN IN BEIRUT : Ladies and gentlemen, following this exclusive online guide is a sure-fire way to be mistaken for a Lebanese. Driving: The driver's seat must be in an uncomfortable and impractical reclined position at all times. No more than one hands shall be on the wheel at any time. The other hand should be on the window frame. Alternatively it may be located on the gear-shift or your girlfriend's leg. Profuse use of horn is encouraged. Religious symbols are to be attached to dashboard at will. Clothes: Shirts are never to be tucked in. A minimum of three buttons must be undone to reveal chest hair and optional gold medallion. Brand names are to be exposed on every visible area of clothing. Technology: Ownership of mobile phones released more than two months ago are a big no-no. Be sure to keep your phone visible at all times. Keep it in your hand and place it on the table during diner or coffee. Fiddle around with the menu at all times, to seem like you are alw...

Zara - Now on Sale So the world cup is over, what happens to the car? "Use of the elevator is prohibited for going up/down one floor" "Get Married for LL39000" = $26 Lebanese Flag during one of the World Cup 2010 games in South Africa

Episode 1 - A comedy spoof about a cosmic kid and his frustrations on a typical day in Hamra, Beirut.

(click image for original size)

During all police investigations it will be necessary to visit a strip club at least once. If being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing St. Patrick's Day parade - at any time of the year. It's easy for anyone to land a plane providing there is someone in the control tower to talk you down. The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place.  No one will ever think of looking for you in there and you can travel to any other part of the building you want without difficulty. You're very likely to survive any battle in any war unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home. Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German officer, it will not be necessary to speak the language.  A German accent will do. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris. A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds. If a large pane o...

Please take a moment to have a good look at this picture.... And keep it in your mind for the rest of your life. As much as it hurts, you will be glad you saw it today, because one day it might save your life and the life of the ones you love... I'm sure that none of us would like to stand in that man's shoes Or even worse, in her shoes ... actually both are the same. So the next time you're driving and your loved ones are with you Just remember this picture, drive carefully and MAKE THEM WEAR THE SEAT BELT S . You may be perfect and you never make mistakes, but unfortunately others are not!!!... So stay safe.

On this day, 5 years ago, two friends of mine who happen to be sisters passed away because of a car accident. So today, we remember them and ask God to bring peace and solace to their families and those who love them. R.I.P Sabine and Nadine.

A Lebanese walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the loan officer. He says he's going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000. The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for theloan, so the Lebanese hands over the keys to a new Rolls Royce. The car is parked on the street in front of the bank, he has the title and everything checks out. The bank agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan. The bank's president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the Lebanese for using a $250,000 Rolls as collateral against a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then proceeds to drive the Rolls into the bank's underground garage and parks it there. Two weeks later, the Lebanese returns, repays the $5,000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41. The loan officer says, "Sir, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were aw...

A 78-year-old Hallandale Beach grandmother ticketed for driving on a suspended driver's license spent 15 days in jail before authorities announced her license wasn't suspended and an outraged judge set her free. County Court Judge Lee J. Seidman ordered Gabrielle Shaink Trudeau's release in December at her arraignment. "She's handcuffed like Houdini, for the record. She's got chains around her waist, and she's got handcuffs in front around her hands as if she was some kind of a violent criminal," said Seidman, according to a transcript. "I want her released. I think she's suffered enough at our system's mistakes." Safeguards built into Broward's judicial system are designed to prevent what happened to Shaink Trudeau. But the prolonged jailing of an elderly woman with no previous criminal record over a traffic ticket has left red-faced authorities admitting they botched her case. "We fell down and we fell down badly,...

A man is driving down the road and breaks down near a monastery. He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door, and says, My car broke down. Do you think I could stay the night? The monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner, and even fix his car. As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound; a sound like no other that he has ever heard . The next morning, he asks the monks what the sound was, but they say, We can't tell you because you're not a monk. The man is disappointed but thanks them anyway and goes about his merry way. Some years later, the same man breaks down in front of the same monastery. The monks again accept him, feed him, and even fix his car. That night, he hears the same strange mesmerizing sound that he had heard years earlier. The next morning, he asks what the sound was, but the monks reply, We can't tell you because you're not a monk. The man says, all right, all right.. I'm dying to know. If the only way I can find o...

Some people lift huge weights. Some people pull trains with their teeth. And then there's this guy. Need a tow? The man's eyelids get to work on the van ! But that's exactly what this martial arts enthusiast is doing, as he pulls the vehicle along with a rope connected to his eye sockets. The demonstration of his eyes' pulling power happened during a performance in Hefei, in China's Anhui province. It's not entirely clear how far he managed to pull the van, or how his eyes felt about the whole affair. Related links: See a list of the Top Five Weirdest Painful Stunts here .

NOTE: This application will be incomplete and rejected unless accompanied by a complete financial statement, job history, lineage, and current medical report from your doctor.

I have been reading a book called 55 Ways to Have Fun With Google and found the section below under chapter 9 and I thought I'd share it with you guys. You can download the whole book here . We might forget how much fun a search engine is, and how much time it saves us in doing everyday things, until the internet connection is interrupted and we’re left without Google. (Or, and this happens more rarely, when Google itself is down.) But usually after some minutes, things are back to normal – and we got our extended memory, our library of more books we could ever read, our information center, and our universal answer machine. And now, for just a moment, I would like you to imagine what today’s life would be without all that. What life would be without Google... and how much more time we’d be spending on solving our problems. Finding Your Lost Keys With Google: You enter “How to find lost keys” into Google, and the pages you find suggest to search every place again. Time spent...