Category Archives: Random

Fuddruckers Lebanon Closes Down?

 

The country’s current economic situation hasn’t been kind. Buddha Bar will soon close down and rumors were swirling around about the possibility of Metropolitan shutting down too. These were later discredited. However, it seems the current situation of the country is going to add another victim to its growing list and it’s the American diner chain Fuddruckers, which opened last year.

A friend who happens to like the place had decided to visit the diner yesterday and was surprised to find it completely closed, with a ribbon in front of its main door and no parking service in sight. And you’d think seeing as November 1st is a day off for most schools in the country, the place would open in order to attract students who probably decided to go out with their friends.

I wouldn’t be too surprised if the place ended up really shutting down. Based on personal observation, business wasn’t exactly booming back when the situation in the country was better than its current state. I personally visited it once with Australian friends and wasn’t too taken by their burgers which I found to be very plain. However, we were the only people there and only three other customers came in during our one hour stay.

The question to be asked is the following: If a chain like Fuddruckers has truly shut down in Lebanon, what would that say of the much smaller businesses spread all around the country? How struggling are they currently?

And if Buddha Bar and Fuddruckers couldn’t weather down the current storm, you cannot but wonder: how thick is the bubble for the collective Lebanese population that seems to be absolutely oblivious to how horrible the economy currently is?

At the rate this is going, it won’t be long before we get another chain closing down.

The True Cause of Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy is not a normal storm. It is not a byproduct of weather conditions that sometimes end up creating such huge storms. No, hurricane Sandy, currently pummeling NYC, is a manufactured storm. Or at least some people think it is.

This is a screenshot from the Syrian Army News Facebook page.

 

“There are sources confirming that Hurricane Sandy which is hitting America was made by very advanced equipment owned by the heroic Iranian regime, with coordination with our resilient regime. The sources have also confirmed that there are Syrian experts who contributed to this. This is the punishment of those who threaten Assad’s Syria and its security.”

You know what’s even funnier? That there are actually some people out there buying it. This is another screenshot that was sent to me by a friend (because the current state of the post has over 900 comments):

Iran’s nuclear program must be a decoy. Who knew their core research is in weather control?

 

 

 

Dancing With The Stars Coming To Lebanon

The United States’ most watched competition TV Show is coming to Lebanon thanks to MTV. A source has told me that the show’s presenter will be Carla Haddad, former weather anchor at LBC, who went to MTV solely in order to quick start the show.

MTV has already started promo for the show on its airways by teasing viewers about the most watched TV show in the world coming to its airways, along with scenes of people dancing. This is the promo in question:

Don’t expect a lot of current famous people to make their way to the TV show but expect “stars” that we are at least familiar with. I will update this post if I get definite names of anyone who’s participating in it.

DWTS pairs famous people with a dancing partner and they dance to a judging panel which grades them. Their grade is then combined with audience vote to determine who gets kicked off. The American version is now in an all-star season which has brought back winners and finalists from all previous seasons.

I personally think MTV has the chops to pull off such a production, similarly to how MBC and LBC are pulling off The Voice. I guess we’ll wait and see. DWTS should start airing on MTV soon.

Buddha Bar Lebanon Shuts Down

Here’s yet another nail in Lebanon’s economic coffin. Buddha Bar, one of Lebanon’s trendiest go-to places, is shutting down permanently, according to the Daily Star. This will get approximately 200 employees laid off from their jobs.

The cause for Buddha Bar shutting down is non-other than the great situation the country is going through. If you haven’t been in the loop, which I doubt, here’s what it breaks down into, grosso modo.

  • A very poor touristic season over the summer.
  • Civil unrest that ignites at any moment.
  • A seemingly camping-site friendly Downtown Beirut, which is where Buddha Bar is located. It has been turned into such a place twice in the past four years alone. They also offer discounts if you want to join them in rainy weather.
  • Political leadership with absolutely no idea whatsoever on how to run things.

And things don’t seem that they’ll drastically improve anytime soon with rhetoric that keeps sinking, politicians who believe acting feisty over Twitter will bring forth change and supporters who are more than convinced that their corresponding side of the political spectrum has done absolutely nothing wrong over the past few years – or has done things that are entirely justifiable.

Meanwhile, 200 families have just lost means of support. And if Buddha Bar is closing down, what does that say about the countless other smaller businesses that are suffering in this country? How many other families will have their jobs taken away from them just because our country is always the playground of others?

We cannot really work on fixing our economy until we fix everything that’s ruining it and herein lies the problem: where do we start fixing?

 

Science Facts & Billboards

A friend recently brought my attention to this link which contains 25 billboards by a Vancouver organization called Science World and I found the billboards to be insanely creative. So I figured I’d share some of them with you.

 

You can check out the rest of the billboards here.

And to make things a little more interesting, I’m going to explain the last billboard more. When you are scared, your body activates part of your autonomic nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system. This system is responsible for the three Fs (flee, fight and mate – you can substitute that last one with its F equivalent).

So the sympathetic nervous system prepares your body to either flee or fight in the same way. Part of this preparation is to cause pupil dilation in order to take in as much light as possible.

P.S.: you also see better when you’re aroused.