Now, We Pray.

Print Ad of the Week

If you have a heart. Give one.

Give Philippe Hage a heart. Give Anne-Marie, Fadi, Magalie, and Cyril a smile from the heart. Philippe is about 25 years old. Born with a weak heart that has failed him couple of weeks back. He will undergo a heart transplant at Georges Pampidou Hospital in France. The cost for his operation is around 200,000 Euros. Do not fail him. Do not fail to save him by giving at:


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May God Bless You and Keep You

Teleferique Food Court & Playgrounds TVCF

Miss USA 2010

24-year old Lebanese American Rima Fakih wins Miss USA 2010

Rima Fakih, a 24-year-old Lebanese-American, won the 2010 title in Las Vegas on Sunday after strutting confidently in an Orange and Gold bikini, wearing a strapless white gown that resembled a wedding dress and saying health insurance should cover birth control pills.
Fakih, from Dearborn, Michigan, nearly stumbled in her evening gown, but she said she believed she had the title after glancing at pageant owner Donald Trump as she awaited the results with the first runner-up, Miss Oklahoma USA Morgan Elizabeth Woolard.
"That's the same look that he gives them when he says, 'you're hired'," she said, referring to Trump's catchphrase from his reality show The Apprentice.
"She's a great girl," said Trump, who owns the pageant with the NBC television network in a joint venture.
In a moment that was replayed during the broadcast, Fakih nearly fell while finishing her walk in her gown because of the length of its train. But she made it without a spill and went on to win.
"I did it here, I better not do it at Miss Universe," she said.
"Modelling does help, after all."
When asked how she felt about winning the crown, Fakih said, "Ask me after I've had a pizza."
The pageant, held at Vegas' Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino on Sunday night, was hosted by Australian celebrity chef Curtis Stone and NBC correspondent Natalie Morales.
Fakih, a Lebanese immigrant, moved to the United States as a baby and was raised in New York, where she attended a Catholic school. Her family moved to Michigan in 2003.
She told pageant organisers her family celebrated both Muslim and Christian faiths.
Fakih replaces Miss USA 2009 Kristen Dalton and won a spot representing the United States later this year in the 2010 Miss Universe pageant.
She also gets a one-year lease in a New York apartment with living expenses, an undisclosed salary and various health, professional and beauty services.

A Sneak Peek at Teleferique Food Court & Playgrounds TVCF

See it on YouTube on May 20, 2010

Advertised Brand: Teleferique Food Court & Playgrounds
Advert Title: Fun
Advertising Agency: Da Vinci, Beirut, Lebanon
Art Director: Alessandra Bianchi
Copywriter: Ramzi Touma
Illustrator: Alberto Vitale
Computer Graphics: Nocturne Animation, Beirut, Lebanon
Sound Design: Nadim Abou Chacra Audio Production, Beirut, Lebanon
Storyboard Artist: Gaby Ferneine
Published: May 2010

Cartoon of the Week

Shakira & Freshlyground Sing Official FIFA World Cup™ Song

FIFA and Sony have chosen Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) as the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa. The song was written by Shakira, the world-famous singer from Latin America and Lebanese origin, who will perform with South African band Freshlyground.


Once again, the announcement of the official FIFA World Cup™ song was keenly awaited. Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) is the name of the new football anthem, and with its rhythmical African sounds, the song represents the vitality and energy of the host continent. South African guitars back up the Afro-Colombian rhythm and Soca beat. The chorus is similar to that of a popular Cameroon song made famous by Golden Voices in particular.


FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter is delighted with the new FIFA World Cup Song: “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) represents what we football fans can expect in South Africa: liveliness, power and dynamism. It represents the four-week festival of football we are about to witness in South Africa. Nothing represents the joy of football better than music, especially when it is a song so full of energy and dynamism like Waka Waka.”


Shakira will perform the song with the famous South African band Freshlyground. “I am honoured that Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) has been chosen to be part of the excitement and the legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup,” said Shakira. “The FIFA World Cup is a miracle of global excitement, connecting every country, race, religion and condition around a single passion. It represents an event that has the power to unite and integrate, and that’s what this song is about.”


“We are thrilled to have collaborated with Shakira on Waka Waka (This Time For Africa), especially as we feel that the song captures the spirit and energy of the African FIFA World Cup,” said Zolani Mahola of Freshlyground. “We are certain that the song will inspire people around the world to celebrate the gathering of nations at the place where it all started. Here in Africa!”


All proceeds from the single as well as from the “Listen Up: The Official 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Album” will be donated to the 20 Centres for 2010 campaign. The aim of the official campaign of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ is to achieve positive social change through football by building 20 Football for Hope Centres in Africa to offer education and healthcare services as well as football training.


FIFA and Sony Music have enjoyed a successful partnership in the official music programme ever since 1994. The tradition of an official song dates back to the 1966 FIFA World Cup™ in England with a song for the first Official Mascot, “World Cup Willie”, who was a lion. Ever since, the official music programme and the Official Mascot have become a more and more significant component of the event, providing an excellent opportunity for more than just football fans to identify with the world’s biggest single-sport event.


Official songs at recent FIFA World Cup™ competitions have included Un’estate italiana by Edoardo Bennato and Gianna Nannini in 1990, Gloryland by Daryl Hall with Sounds of Blackness in 1994, and La Copa de la Vida by Ricky Martin in 1998. In 2002, the official song was Boom by Anastacia, while Vangelis’ vocal official anthem featured typical Korean and Japanese sonic elements. In 2006, The Time of Our Lives by the Il Divo quartet was a resounding success. 

The End of Microsoft

The End of Microsoft. A door opens to a new cloud. As apps migrate to the Net, the software giant's old model looks older every day. Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO salesforce.com recently wrote:


"I have been waiting for something spectacular to happen any day. And it’s not the explosion of another volcano in Iceland, but it will be a global event with far reaching ramifications that will be as well known. Apple’s market capitalization is about to be worth more than Microsoft's. That is quite a change from a decade ago.


This became clear to me after I recently invited Mary Meeker, Morgan Stanley’s renowned prophet (note that’s prophet with a “ph” and not an “f”), to speak to my management team about her most recent manifesto, “The Mobile Internet Report.” Mary did a brilliant job reviewing the most important developments in the technology market place from 400 million users on Facebook to 75 million iPhones to 4 billion apps downloaded on the Appstore. What struck me as more significant than what was included was what was conspicuously absent. When she opened the discussion for questions I made one observation: "Mary in your entire hour-long presentation on the future you didn’t mention Microsoft even once." I had spent my career with Microsoft as the ever looming Goliath: from my days at Oracle wondering how Bill Gates and Co. would steal away our database business to starting salesforce.com and waiting (and waiting) for Microsoft to turn to the cloud and offer a product that our customers would want (Neither happened).


After Mary’s presentation I joked with my team about one of Microsoft’s new commercials. "I'm a PC, and Windows 7 is my idea," says the woman in French sitting in Paris outside of a busy cafe. "My PC used to crash all the time, and I told Microsoft I wanted it to stop." I don’t really get the campaign, but what I find most baffling is that she didn't ask for any other innovation. How is that possible? How can’t someone want more? How can Microsoft think this is what customers demand most?


Facebook’s success, as well as the rise of other new technologies like YouTube, devices like the iPhone and the iPad and models like Cloud Computing are evidence of a huge shift happening in computing — and it’s bigger than anything we have seen before. And although Microsoft is a casualty, it certainly is not the cause. This is the fundamental nature of our industry in which every 10 years or so a radical new paradigm of computing emerges. From mainframes (70's) to minicomputers (80's) to PCs and LANs (90's) to Cloud 1-the desktop Internet (2000's) to Cloud 2-the mobile Internet (2010+), we can safely say that the only constant in the last 50 years of computing is change. And no company or individual can escape the velocity of change of our industry. Today's customers do want far more. In contrast to the innovation stagnation at Microsoft, Apple is delivering in a profound way. And, having taken a music player and transforming it to change the way we all use the Net, Apple dominates the current mobile paradigm. Facebook, as the single most popular app on the net today, is also training the future users of computing. In many ways it is becoming the new connector of everything on the Internet with universal like. And as it nears half a billion users and is growing faster than ever before, it’s only a matter of time before a billion people use this new way to communicate. Everything about Facebook, the app, the entire ecosystem around it, and all of the user’s data and metadata is in the cloud. It’s a 100% pure Internet app. Most importantly, none of it is written with any Microsoft software. (That's universal unlike.)


As we try to keep pace with these changes to a new computing industry, we are left with only two choices: innovate or die. Microsoft like DEC before it, and IBM before it, tried too long to hold on to its Windows model believing it was permanent in an industry of impermanence. But it didn’t work out that way. Google outsmarted Microsoft into the Internet, and it dominated the next Internet paradigm. Now Apple is the clear winner in the new mobile paradigm.


We are fully entrenched in the world of Cloud 2. Smart phones that run apps have replaced PC's. We are mobile. We touch, not click. We are social, not siloed. Our location is known, not anonymous. We know more about what our friends are doing than our own employees, and sometimes our own families. Facebook, Apple, and a new generation of technologies are defining our daily experiences. The old model looks older every day as it tries to hold on in a last gasp of updates based on stability instead of innovation.


The way we run our lives has forever changed. The employees we are hiring right out of school are appalled by the technology we use to run our companies. They are more productive at home than they are in the office. They call for a change that is difficult to hear in companies that rank seniority over insight. The new paradigm is amplified as entire industries like communications, music, and education are transformed forever.


As a CEO I am restless as I think how I will transform our company, customer base, and ecosystem to the modern era. It’s not easy. Will some remain in Cloud 1 peering backward gleefully while our last generation competitors stagnate in the PC paradigm? Or, can we do better? Can we step forward with new technology and new products — and advance the new paradigm? This is the reason that I am putting our best teams on our best chance — a new service called Chatter, which offers a brand new way to collaborate with people at work. You have to make big bets in business to get big returns. Steve Jobs has once again reminded us of that lesson and has shared with us the rewards".