Length - 5.412km Race distance - 57 lap / 308.238km Full throttle - 63% Top speed - 309kph Longest flat-out section - 14s / 1.05km Right/left-hand turns - 9/6 Tyre wear - Medium Brake wear - High Downforce level - Medium Gearshifts per lap - 58 2009 tyre compounds: medium, super-soft 2008 tyre compounds: medium, soft
Race results;
1. Jenson Button 2. Sebastian Vettel 3. Jarno Trulli 4. Lewis Hamilton 5. Rubens Barrichello 6. Kimi Raikkonen 7. Timo Glock 8. Fernando Alonso 9. Nico Rosberg 10. Nelson Piquet Jnr 11. Mark Webber 12. Heikki Kovalainen 13. Sebastien Bourdais 14. Felipe Massa 15. Giancarlo Fisichella 16. Adrian Sutil 17. Sebastien Buemi 18. Robert Kubica 19. Nick Heidfeld Did not finish Kazuki Nakajima (48 laps)
In the beginning I wasn’t sure I want to watch the race, I just bought the ticket because it’s happing in the country I’m living in so I thought why not, let’s go.
Everyone told me it’s boring in the circuit, you get to see only a small part of the whole race, cars’ engine are so loud that you ears will hurt for the next 3 days, buy the ear-plugs or die, it’s very hot so the time is better spent on the “beach”, ..., and more and more on these words, but I thought I will go anyway since it’s happening and I’m there.
The reality was completely different; the race was so exciting even though you see only part of it, ear-plugs? It’s the biggest mistake one can make when going to such an event, the cars were loud, I agree, but the engines’ sound is a vital part of the experience, and it’s the next day now, and you know what? My ears don’t hurt, we spent a couple of hours under the direct sunlight but it was totally worth it.
This is the most interesting and exciting sport event that I’ve ever been to, and I will be going every time it happens in this area, Abu Dhabi is coming on November, book your ticket now, it’s one of kind experience.
A new era in YouTube’s life is coming soon, YouTube to show full length movies, the Financial Times reported on Friday the 17th of April. This comes with the huge afforts made by the parent comapny Google to win over the proffisional content producers, and to make real money from the most clicked site on the World Wide Web.
“We’ve been looking for a business model where the content owner is happy and making money,” Mr Schmidt told the Financial Times on Tursady.
The new business idea will be to show the full length movie with adds included in the movie, and the profit will be split between YouTube and the producing studio, a deal like that has been signed between YouTube and Universal Studios earlier this month.
The largest studio involved in making a partnership deal with YouTube is Sony, but this deal is different, since Sony has it’s own web cast site, Crackle. Sony will offer only 15 movies including dated materials, and the movies will play on Crackle not on YouTube, Sony will also control the adds which will appear every 10 minutes.
So finally Google has figured a way to make money out of YouTube!
Once a scientist wanted to do an experiment on behaviour trends and how it develops with time, so he got 5 monkeys and put them in a cage, he places some bananas on the top of the cage and put a ladder in the cage, one monkey tried to reach the bananas, and at once the scientist aimed a water hose and fired very cold water at the other 4,he scared them to death.
Next, another monkey tries to reach the bananas and the scientist did the same thing, after sometime and couple of cold water hits, he found that whenever a monkey tries to reach the bananas, the other monkeys will hit him hard and keep him from reaching the banana.
Next, he took one of the monkeys out and let another one in, let’s call the new monkey XY. The moment XY gets into the cage, he goes up the ladder to get the banana, but the other monkeys still remember the cold water torture, so they jump and start hitting him to ban him from reaching the banana, after a couple of tries and some really hard hits XY learned that if he tries to get the banana he will be hit hard by the other monkeys, although none of them wants the banana, he doesn’t understand why he’s being hit, he just knows it will happen.
The scientist continued on the process of taking out one monkey and adding a new one and the same thing happened all the time with all the new monkeys and even XY was hitting the new comers even though he doesn’t know why.
After taking out all the monkeys that have been tortured with the cold water and placing new monkeys in the cage, and even repeating this process until he changed the group twice (of course one by one he does it) the same thing kept happening.
Now, none of the new monkeys has been tortured with the cold water, so none of them knows why he is defending these bananas, but they still do it anyway, because they are used to it and they saw the late ones doing it, and also each one of them get hit at least once because he tried ti reach the bananas.
Warning: No good vibes in this post. The main purpose for it is to bitch and moan about the subject matter. So, if you don't want to be put down, don't read it.
Now that you have been warned, my main reason for this post is basically to complain about an area that, for me, is major cause of distress and suffocation!
Sharjah!!
I stated in numerous occasions to my friends living in Sharjah that under no circumstance will I be going there for a visit or to spend some time. It was due to the rediculously screwed up traffic for the most part. But today reality hit me. The moment the skyline of Sharjah welcomed us and we dived into the hellish traffic of Sharjah I suddenly became depressed! It surprised me because five mintues ago as we were crossing Garhoud Bridge overlooking Festival City on the right, and Grand Hayyat on the left I was happy and dandy. It's amazing how this city changes my mood into one that is suitable of a grumpy old fart who lost his wife to cancer and was abandoned by his six kids.
The first thing that welcomes you into Sharjah is a chaotic skyline. Towers that seem to be stemming out of nowhere, so random that you find it hard to imagine what network might put them all together. inexplicable 10:00 pm traffic, and raodworks that you know damn well will not lead to any remedy. I can't imagine the meeting in which the "City Planners" have sat to come up with the grandest of plans to make this a metropolitan! They stuffed hundreds of thousands of people in a couple of square kilometers adjacent to Dubai to harvest as much as they can from those who can't afford a living in Dubai. No horizon, no air to breathe and countless number of small time shops adding to the overwhilming fuzzy atmosphere of this place.
It seems to me that Sharjah was builts to bring together the worst of Riyadh and Cairo. Mind you, I never went to Cairo, but it is my imagination that those rotting buildings standing for decades in the old and crushed district of Cairo can't be any worse. And since I was born in Riyadh I can say that they remind my of those concrete blocks gracing NOT the city! Lively? it sure is. But, you get the feeling that this city is a combination of Bat'ha in Riyadh, Al Balad in Amman and a refugee camp somewhere in Irbed!
A jungle of Concrete. This is exactly what it is. No parking, no traffic flow, no beautiful buildings, no grace whatsoever. Ironically, if you go and visit the Lake "a.k.a EL Buhaira" this article will be what you call a Phu Phuck Lai! A new level of lying.
But it's not. It really isn't. Apologies for all those who live in Sharjah, but I can't deny that the moment I step foot in that city I feel like I need a session with Dr. Phil!!
I have seen a lot curious stuff in this city. Dubai strived to bring together everything New York, London and Paris stood for. However, it tried to retain its oriental feel, and I doubt that it succeeded.
Recently, Dubai has experienced a drastic change in the way it looks and feels. Less traffic, less glamour, prices going down, promotions on practically everything! Hell even Lexus is running promotions nowadays, and RAIN!! It's crazy. It's been raining in Dubai practically every other day for the past two weeks. This never happened for as long as I've been here, and certainly not in late March. Reports say that the country hasn't experienced that kind of rain for the past 15 years, and my experience during Coldplay concert confirms it.
Now to share with you the latest twist in the atmosphere here in Dubai, take a look at these photos! It feels like a mediveal european castle where Count Dracula lived. Actually it feels like Mount Doom from Lord of The Rings! How do you think those who invested in this building see these images? A sign? That there investments have been struck by a natural "or not so natural" disastor?
One of the most interesting things that one can do in his/her life would be to do something you know you'd enjoy after a long wait. Now, doing that in one of the most awkward and unlikely circumstances adds that edge to it and makes it even more wonderful!
Coldplay, which in my opinion is one of the best rock bands ever were in Abu Dhabi last weekend. This band is one who successfully built I unique sound for themselves and produced some songs that became anthems like Yellow and Fix you! And no, these are not the sugar-coated anthems you think about. So in case you were one of those who had the pleasure of watching Coldplay live you'll know what I mean!
Chris Martin has this unique ability of acting dorky in an adorable way! The guy connects with his crowd in an effortless fashion! Certainly he was helped by how great their songs are and how genuine their fans are! I actually attended an Akon concert here in Dubai and I don't remember a single song he did! I was enjoying the crowd, my group, and that dance floor hanging from a 15-storey crane! But with Colplay everything felt right! Their music, Chris Martin's antiques, the beautiful lighting system and the huge crowd! 15,000, Gulfnews reported the next day!
Now, imagine this coupled with thunder storms and amazonic rain!! in freaking UAE!! It's almost poetic! I remember I was soaking wet, and I looked like an idiot but I loved every minute of it! Chris asked the crowd to stick around in spite of the rain, but I really don't think he needed to! The only people who might have thought of running away were those sitting in the VIP section, because the rain ruined their dream of a Ragheb Alama like concert with people rounding dinner tables and a cheesy Haifa giving her butt to the crowd!
One funny thing though was that Chris thought that the crowd would be insulted because he couldn't speak arabic! Little did he know, which was a bit awkward, that more than half the crowd was made of non-arabs! Still he threw around some words like Shukran, ma alsalama, ahlan wa sahlan and key-fuck!!
To their credit, Mercury Rev, the opening act did a good job as well. Their music took time to be digested by my ears but I can't say they were bad. Their lead singer, however, needs to be told that if he is planning to act dorky, he better be as famous and successful as Chris Martin to get away with it! Also, that flying eagle thingy he did, or whatever you want to call it, was not cute! But hey, what do I know?! In few years time they'll probably produce a masterpiece and after that no matter how idiotic they will look, it will still look coool.
All in all it was an unforgettable night, and probably a once in a lifetime experience! Next concert should be Matchbox Twenty or U2
