Category: Nature

I just found out that in 1921 a meteorite fell on Beirut, I did a little research about it and here’s what I got:

• It fell on the last day of 1921 (12-31-1921) so I guess some people thought the world was ending :P
• It weights 1.1 Kg
• Its Official name is Beyrout
• It’s one of 17 meteorites classified as LL3.8

I was also able to get a picture of it but couldn’t find any info on where they are keeping it and who is keeping it, anyways here it is:

Source 1 2

A lot of people in Lebanon have a hobby, they like to kill birds. That’s not very weird, a lot of people around the world like to go hunting. The only problem in Lebanon is that Lebanese don’t have a limit. Normal people feel something is weird when they go to picnic in the mountains and sit on a carpet of multicolored empty rifle rounds but in Lebanon people finish eating, take the rifle out of the car and start hunting! When they return home in the evening they complain that they weren’t able to catch a lot of birds this time and that no single bird passed over their heads. I wonder why!

People hunt birds in every country in the world, the only difference is that in normal countries the hunting is controlled, people are only allowed to kill a certain amount of birds from X specie and if they are caught with more birds they face heavy fines and prison.

In Lebanon we have laws but we have no one to apply them, the police never stops anyone, and even if they do they just take the bird and the riffle and set him free. The ministers that are supposed to apply the law can sometime be hunters (Sleiman Frangieh was minister of interior) and the minister of environments are usually given to people for political reasons (That’s were Wi2am Wahab started his bright political career!).

Birds migrate so when we kill birds we are not just killing Lebanese ones we are affecting the earth, something must be done about this! I am not asking them to stop hunting, all what they should do is educate hunters and control them like any normal country in the world does!

Still life with hunting equipment and dead birds
1668 Oil on canvas, 68 cm x 54 cm
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe

ElNashra from LBCI

I just turned on the TV to find that Deir Al Qamar is currently surrounded by fires!

They are showing images on LBCI of burned trees and burning forests! apparently the village is surrounded and the firefighters are not managing to control the fires due to the lack of waters and vehicules, the army helicopter won’t help because of the wind. The fire started to reach some homes (they showed 2 burned cars and said 4 homes were damaged), the only help they got is from the Damour fiirefighters but they just asked for more help on TV!

Apparently 32 fires are currently burning in Lebanon (mainly the north and the mountains) because of the weather so this might explain why they can’t send other firefighters to help, but something has to be done! if the fire did so much damage in one night what will happen if it continues? Deir Al Qamar is one of the few remaining regions with forests in it, They can’t let it burn like this!

UPDATE : They just called a reporter in Rechmaya (that’s on the other side of the mountain!) the fire is spread in all the Chouf and is destroying everything! Trees in the hills around Rechmaya just started to grow back after a huge fire some years ago! I hope the fire didn’t destroy everything

UPDATE 2 : Lebanon is burning!! it is not confined to the Chouf Aley region, he just said the names of the villages that have fires and it’s everywhere!!!

They are asking people with Water Trucks to head to the nearest firefighters station to offer help and are making international calls to get help.

Here’s a list of villages with fires around them (Those are not the only ones, those are just the ones I managed to write down) :

• Choueir
• A3kour A friend living there told us there is no fire at her village!
• Beit Mery
• Rechmaya
• Deir Al Qamar
• Kbayat
• 3azn2it (Big Fire)
• Kfarzayna
• Sir
• Forza
• B2arssouna
• Rachaya