Einmal ist Keinmal

SO yes the world of twitter is unusual, that's what I always say. Today was no exceptions with two interesting twitter encounters.
Through Fulla's twitter, I come across Amin Gemayel's twitter.
If you don't know Fulla, she's the veiled barbie, yes not the most honoring of objects, but a bunch of Lebanese (and Lebanese residents) reclaimed this toy by launching a campaign to make full our next president (or MP or whatever).
If you don't know Amine Gemayel then you've probably never heard Lebanese politics. He is an ex-president and an extreme right-wing adept.
Anyway, point is that I wanted to check this Gemayel twitter. And the post by the Syria News Wire titled: Exclusive interview with Amin Gemayel. It is very amusing, but then on closer inspection, you would notice that Syria News wants to taunt readers and tease them: Is it Amine? Or is it not Amine? That is the question.
It is true, as Syria wire pointed out, the twitterer did not give any incriminating evidence by the way s/he spoke.
But let's be serious. I find it close to impossible for this twitter user to be Amine Gemayel. Not because I don't take twitter seriously I make my living out of social media. And not because politicians never use twitter... Obama?
But here are my clues:

1. Notice the profile picture, even I can get my hands on a picture with a better resolution.
   


2. Notice the background, the pixelated background is painful. All political parties, including the Kataeb which is headed by Gemayel, are putting outrageous amounts of money in the campaigns.
   


3. And finally for the least reliable arguments but that I find most compelling. The language. Amine Gemayel is a hardcore French-educated, bourgeois. He can speak professional English, but would not use English on a regular, day-to-day basis. The twitterer on the other hands is a chatter English person...
   

So I don't see how can this twitterer be Gemayel himself. Unless Syria News knows this but is just messing with readers' heads. Though reading this article was a great pleasure I couldn't help but to feel disgusted by the reference to Gemayel being gay... I would be very happy to know Gemayel is gay but this use of the term "gay" as synonymous to insult (mainly in the first comment made) is just sad.

One of the things that bother me the most when I am reading about paleoanthropolgy is the fact that there aren't many human remains that were found in the Middle-East (ME). It is not that ancient humans did not live in the ME, this area was, and remains, one of the most prosperous in the world. But it is just that we don't value our heritage enough.
Two Neandertalensis remains have been found in Israel for example, that's like one third of all the remains that were found throughout the region! I am sure that Israel was not more populated ten thousand years ago than Lebanon or Syria were.
One thing I remember from my childhood is a story about some human remains that were dated at approximately 10 000 years. They were said to be found in a cave in the region of Jbeil.
According to my dad, when the remains were found the entrepreneur realized that the Ministry of Tourism would force him to halt the work. So he ordered the whole cave to be destroyed during the night. When the Ministry's inspector arrived the next morning, they found nothing to examine. The remains were forgotten and that was that.
How true this story is, I can never know. It has been so long since it happened and no body cared enough to document it. But I wouldn't be surprised, it sounds very plausible.
Another example, that is far more tangible and documented is DownTown Beirut. Yes tourists are very pleased, especially those coming from other Middle Eastern countries, the nightlife is great and everything. But at closer inspection you'll notice that DownTown Beirut is built around the old remains.
Get even closer and you will see something like this:
Roman ruins downtown Beirut by Rinatuch

Yes, there are TREES growing amidst the Romain ruins, this picture doesn't exactly show it but there is also a disgusting amount of touristic garbage everywhere.
People here tend to see ancient ruins like great dumping spaces. Seeing this makes me understand a bit more why we still haven't found any stone age human forms in Lebanon for example. We just don't appreciate their value!

Today was quite an exceptional day for me on different levels. But then again the highest peek of my day is always when I leave the office and work from somewhere else. Not only do I become more efficient and productive but I also find the weirdest shit.
The most interesting "weird shit" that I found today was not that weird, it's just this video shot at 1000 frames per second, which means that it captures more frames than what the human eye would when you are watching something (it's actually more than the frames you would need). It's kinda cool, it looks so out of time and out of gravity.

I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel from David Coiffier on Vimeo.

Things I like about my new job:
1- it pays my bills
2- it involves working on ICT which means that I get to research all of these awesome tools such as ScribeFire and twitter and google earth...
3- my colleagues are nice and the office is quite

Things I don't like about my job:
1- I want to finish the goddamn packet and I have something like a writing block or something
2- I look-up at my boss too much, I can't hate her!

And in case you have no idea what my "new job" is all about: www.socialmediaexchange.org <- this is it

If this works out I will be removing this entry and replacing it with another one that actually talks about ScribeFire ;)