Side Items
Studio Salam Soft Opened!!: Sahar and I have been planning and working to provide a creative space to showcase Muslim and minority artists here in the city. We finally hosted our first public event yesterday featuring nine local artists and I feel it was a success! I’m sure there will be many more events to come (art classes, open mic nights, conspiracy-fueled podcast recordings, the possibilities are truly endless) and I’m excited at the prospect of sharing the space and doing fun stuff with people I care about (like you, dear reader)
New Cube Just Dropped: The corrupt and murderous Saudi Arabian regime has schemed up their newest waste of money, announcing a new gigantic/impossible megaproject: New Murabba. The idea is to build the largest "modern downtown" in the world, whatever that means, an entire 19 sq km (1/2 the size of Jersey City) to be developed onto Riyadh. The centerpiece of this new downtown development is the Mukaab, a borderline blasphemous toweringly tacky golden cube. Initial designs render it as 400 meters by 400 meters by 400 meters, 62 feet higher than the Empire State Building, and the space will be filled with hotel rooms, retail space, and tourist attractions. Forget Disney World, this year we’re going to *~Tha Cube~*
Million Dollar Babies: The US Department of Labor has fined one of the country's largest food sanitation companies, Packers Sanitation Services Inc., $1.5 million for allegedly employing 102 kids to clean meat-packing facilities and razor-sharp equipment at night (that’s comes out to ~$14,700 per kid btw). Some of the children were as young as 13 and at least three of them suffered injuries while working. Sweet