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...

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...

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

Two years ago, on a summer afternoon, 7 PM. A brother of a personal friend of mine is driving way above the speed limit coming from Beirut to Saida. Recklessly, he enters Saida's Eastern boulevard and without looking in front of him, knocks an elderly woman down with his car. The woman, who turned out to be the grandmother of another friend of mine, is taken to the hospital by an ambulance and dies later that night. The guy will live with guilt through-out his whole life. He was lucky that the victim's family did not press charges. One year ago, on a summer late night, 2 AM. A young guy, descending from a prominent family in Saida, is driving from Beirut to Saida and had reached the highway. Rumors has it, he was drunk. Other rumors say he was just sleepy. BAMMM.. He hits a tree near the entrance of Saida city, loses consciousness, car blows up. He dies there and then. He wasn't found until the morning by the local army personnel. Two days ago, on a summer night, beyond 12 ...

SEOUL, Feb 21 – A South Korean woman who has failed the driver's exam 775 times is not about give up on her hope of buying a truck one day to go into her own business, whether other drivers want her on the road or not. Cha Sa-soon, 68, has been trying since 2005 to pass the written portion of the test to get a licence, but she has so far failed to get the 60 percent required to clear it. "I've looked up some guidebooks to get a driver's licence, and they were saying it takes at most five years to get this," Cha said in North Jeolla province, where farmers on tractors or cows can be just as common on country roads as motor vehicles. "It's already been four years, so I might pass the test next time. That's what I hope for." Driving schools in South Korea offer courses to enable applicants to walk away with a licence in a week. Cha has not been fortunate enough to set foot in...

A US patrol officer stopped a car for suspicious driving and found to his surprise that a drunk mother had let her one-year-old son take the wheel, the Ohio state police department said. Marya Green, 29, of Goshen Township, near Cincinnati, was arrested late on Tuesday and found to have a 0.11 per cent blood alcohol level - well above the 0.08 per cent legal limit, said the town’s police department spokeswoman Mandy Storer. Her licence already suspended for a previous drink-driving offence, Green had put her infant son behind the steering wheel, while two other children aged eight and five were also travelling in the car, she added. “Let’s be honest, a one-year-old child doesn’t have the skill to drive a car. We all know that,” Storer said. “But he was riding, the hands were on the wheel. She was allowing him to steer.” It was Green’s third drink-driving offence in six years, she said. AFP