Dubai Museum

Now that the city of Dubai seems to be building pretty much anything and everything you can think of, from the world’s tallest building, the highest tennis court, an indoor ski resort and even a fashion island for that bizarre castaway fantasy your gold digging spouse secretly has. I guess someone finally thought it was time for some culture. Someone’s Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has “decreed” (that means demanded and payed for) the start of “his strategic vision of making the UAE a hub for multicultural understanding. The museum will be a celebration of the region’s artists and art. It will also celebrate Khor Dubai’s importance as a cultural hub within a Dubai as a global city.” I find it interesting that they believe a building filled with only local artists will somehow put Dubai’s new museum on scale with more inclusive international museums like Hermitage, Getty, New York’s MET, Prado, British Museum and Louvre. UN Studio, based in The Netherlands, has been selected to design the Museum and will certainly be the most international aspect of this rather intriguing looking museum.

Inconspicuous Megayacht

The Dune 90 strays from the common “wedding cake” stacking style of the current yacht market and instead boasts monolithic approach inspired by stealth frigates and rippling sand dunes. The result is a crisp, lean, and classy look that still maintains the modern luxuries  you’d expect from a yacht of this size; including 10 guest cabins, swimming pool, berths for a submarine or wave-runners, and like any good megayacht- a helipad.

The record for the world’s tallest tower is set to be broken yet again… The new skyscraper will measure one kilometre high and will be located in Saudi Arabia.

The tower will outdo Gulf neighbour Dubai, which inaugurated its own record-breaking skyscraper the 828m Burj Khalifa less than two years ago.

The Saudis awarded a more than $1 billion contract for a spire, to be named the Kingdom Tower.

It will have a Four Seasons hotel, serviced apartments, luxury condominiums and offices, encompassing, in all, about half a million square metres.

The Saudi construction giant is owned by the family of Osama bin Laden. The family disavowed the slain al-Qaeda terror group leader years ago.

The tower, designed by Chicago-based Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture, is the first phase of the planned Kingdom City, a sprawling, $20 billion, two-square mile



Read more: Saudis Set to Build Kingdom Tower | LUXUO Luxury Blog http://www.luxuo.com/luxury-locations/saudis-set-to-build-kingdom-tower.html#ixzz1bGGjIHxd

Virgin Galactic Gateway To Space Officially Open

Sir Richard Branson today opened the Virgin Galactic Gateway To Space formally known as Spaceport America for business today, by abseiling down the side of the world’s first built-from-scratch commercial spaceport, spraying and drinking from a bottle of champagne.

Even though the space port is now open it will still be a little time before paying customers will be making their first flights in to suborbital space. Testing is expected to continue until later in to 2012 with flights into suborbital space expected to be launched from the spaceport in early 2013.
450 passengers have already bought their £125,000 tickets to make the journey into suborbital space once the Virgin Galactic Gateway To Space is finally ready.

 Source: BBC

Solar Printing

The Art of Solar Printing


It’s here in concept and I simply love it! The Tanning Printer is a solar powered printer that doesn’t use cartridges. Instead it uses the process of sun-tanning the paper! You got that right sir…sun tan! It seems outlandish right now, but trust me the idea is worth exploring… the design is here, it looks neat and sleek; now let the engineers figure it out!

Designers: Hosung Jung, Junsang Kim, Seungin Lee & Yonggu Do

Google Earth Reaches 1 Billion Downloads

Google Earth was first launched back in 2005, and Google has now announced that Google Earth has reached over 1 billion downloads around the world, and this number includes the mobile version, the desktop version, and the browser plug in version of Google Earth.

Luxury Las Vegas Style in China

Casino giant Caesar’s Entertainment has announced the start of construction on its first non-casino luxury resort, in the Chinese holiday destination of Hainan.

The Caesars Palace Longmu Bay will be a 5-star resort with 1,000 rooms, a Las Vegas-style attraction which will set a ‘global luxury standard’ in China.

The first phase of the project is expected to cover a total of five square kilometers, Caesars confirmed September 27, with a planned opening date of 2014.

Costing some 36 billion yuan, it will combine a hotel with restaurant from celebrity and Michelin-rated chefs serving both local and global cuisine, along with two huge entertainment venues.

Valued about $210 million, largest recovery

When the SS Gairsoppa was torpedoed by a German U-boat 70 years ago, it took its huge silver cargo to a watery grave.
Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration’s divers are working to recover what may be the biggest shipwreck haul ever, valued at some $210 million. The British ship was carrying some 219 tons of silver  when it sank in 1941 in the North Atlantic some 300 miles (490 kilometers) off the Irish coast.

Valued then at 600,000 pounds, the silver today is worth about $210 million, which would make it history’s largest recovery of precious metals lost at sea

$3 billion mega-resort next year

Miami is to get a new $3 billion mega-resort next year constructed by the same firm behind Singapore’s massive Santosa destination 

Webcam Installed Near Mount Everest

Now anyone can check out a frigid mountain top in their off time. This extraordinary project was undertaken by a German camera firm with the help of some sherpas, who put much effort into its setup. More than a live streaming attraction, the camera near the Everest summit is a joint scientific effort.