New space-time phenomenon, observed Amman, Jordan

I've not been doing a good job of writing lately. I don't think I'm alone as the MENA region is undergoing a lot of change.

Anyway, from our spring trip to Amman Jordan . . .  Here's a new space-time phenomenon. Check out this two-dimensional building! By the way, we found more of these but this was the only sunny day for photos.

There is actually a small store in this building!





A Barbie Room in Paris Hotel Plaza Athenee

I couldn't resist posting this one. I'd stay here for sure!

From Luxury Travel Magazine: http://www.luxurytravelmagazine.com/news-articles/barbie-and-hot-wheels-rooms-at-hotel-plaza-athenee-paris-15776.php

A Wedding Experience

This wedding party was held in a large diwan filled with cushions A relative of the bride walked by a group of us "foreign women." Not too surprisingly, she had an enormous amount of gold. One ‎necklace alone held a round disk the size of mini-CD! 

The relative, I'll call her Fatima for fun, had a lot of hip movement and she appeared to have a lot of ‎other enhancements for the more than full-bodied look. No Barbie for sure, but she was the popular, young third wife, being all of 18 years of age according to her relatives, of a leading businessman and sheikh.

The name Fatima quickly got replaced with "Boo Peep ‎Wanna-Be." ‎Aside from her precious tastes in 21 plus karat gold gaudy (even if expensive) jewelry, she decided to wear a bright pink ante-bellum gown. The hoops were endless and also bent. As she walked by us, Boo Peep's hoop swun upwards revealing her decision to forego underwear. A very icky wedding experience!

Names in Arabia, Part1‎

A friend working in Yemen told me about a teacher whose first name could be translated as the word for death. That’s not a great name and the pronunciation could be made different. The problem is his last name. It translates into the word for worms. Welcome to Yemen, Dead Worms! Again, Tweet does not share my sense of humor on this one.

Yemeni air shipments and CDs

Just heard from a friend who has finished out his consultancy in Yemen. He’s trying to ship some household goods back to the U.S. Nuttin’ doing. Since October 2010, no one is able to send any unaccompanied air cargo and of course airlines won’t take lots of accompanied air cargo even if you’re willing to pay. Someone made the false report that air cargo shipments from Yemen to the U.S. have resumed, but they haven’t. See http://www.yementimes.com/defaultdet.aspx?SUB_ID=35634.



So our friend is trying to ship some items ahead to his next destination, Jordan, which is now open for shipments from Yemen. He prepared his first test package including legal software and music CDs. All of the CDs were removed from the package. No reason given but it seems that the shipping companies think that CDs can explode. Well, according to the Mythbusters at the Discovery Channel, it turns out that they can explode--if you spin them fast enough! http://www.powerlabs.org/cdexplode.htm; http://gadgetopia.com/post/2086. Hummmmmm......