This week I've taken a bit of time in the afternoons to catch up with my news/website reading. My friend George has a computer company and he allows me to bring my laptop to use his DSL connection. If he is free, we talk while I'm online or sometimes I just have an uninterrupted stretch of a couple of hours.
What I try to do is open about 20 different windows with various websites that I enjoy. Then I disconnect and take the time to read them offline at home in the evening.
One thing I found was a lively discussion of the World Cup television coverage in the U.S. (via Kottke).
By the sounds of things, I'm lucky to be watching the Arabic broadcast. It's on a special subscription satellite sports channel, but all the cafes around Tanta have it this month so that people will come in to watch the matches and eat/drink while there. No special graphics or anything – just the bare essentials of the clock and the score and sometimes a window about the percentage of possession for each team and number or shots on goal. That's it!
As to the audio, I can't say that I follow all of it (because of my level of Arabic and because the Arabic they're using is from the Gulf, which is very different)...but it seems to be fairly plain play-by-play. People's names as they control the ball or pass, criticism when someone makes a mistake, praise for good plays and some discussion when the referees make their calls or when players flop.
It's fun to be watching in public places b/c I can get a sense for who people want to win here. For example, there was no question on Tuesday that the crowd was rooting for France to beat Spain. I don't there were any Spain fans in the place where I was watching. Or maybe they were just keeping quiet b/c of the energy of the France fans? *laugh*
As some of you may know, the environment has become a topic that I spend quite a bit of time thinking about here in Egypt. I think there are 2 reason: 1 is that I see what a mess Tanta is – trash everywhere, mostly disposable items (cups, spoons, bottles, etc) and it comes from economics and lack of awareness. Last night, I tried to convince a friend that it's cheaper in the long run for him and better for the environment to buy a Gillette Sensor razor and then just replace the head when he's finished (after using the blade for a month or more), instead of getting cheap plastic razors that he only uses 2 or 3 times and then throws away the whole thing, handle and all.
Not sure if I succeeded. I may have to make the purchase myself and give it to him as a gift.
On this note of the environment, I came across an interesting suggestion about the U.S. government implementing a lightbulb exchange program and how much money/energy it would save each year to eliminate inefficient bulbs. Have you changed all your bulbs yet?
(via Kottke)
Now, to politics...I won't comment much about these b/c I think the articles speak for themselves.
1. Sane comments about war in Iraq (from the Detroit Free Press):
2. 1 Israeli soldier kidnapped, bombings result in loss of electricity for nearly 1 million Palestinians in Gaza strip: (from AP): The Story
No comments:
Post a Comment