Abu Dhabi police find snakes on a plane … and squirrels and parrots

by Tom Johansmeyer on

You know that the United Arab Emirates is not to be outdone, right? So, when an 89-year-old lady’s dog gets loose on an American flight, the Middle East has to find a way to trump it. And, you know it was better than a dog and a cat or an angry monkey.

On a flight from Indonesia to the United Arab Emirates, a passenger was reported to have “four snakes, two parrots and a squirrel inside a box” … not to mention other animals! I seriously want to know how the hell this stuff made it onto the plane!

Though the police in Abu Dhabi didn’t reveal the snake species, a newspaper in Dubai hit up a few experts and said they were “reticulated and blood pythons, both non-venomous,” according to the Associated Press.

[photo by goingslo via Flickr]

Photo of the Day (8.17.10)

by Stephen Greenwood on
Anyone know how to order a half-caf venti soy no foam latte in Arabic?

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, today’s Photo of the Day comes from the city of immense scale, renowned elegance, & other worldly air conditioning bills; Dubai. Flickr user JonRawlinson snapped the shot in Dubai’s Ibn Battuta Mall, where the iconic coffee kiosk has become somewhat of an attraction in and of itself.

Your move, Texas.

Do you have photos of something familiar to you in an unfamiliar setting? We’d love to see them! Upload them to our Gadling Flickr Pool and it could be tomorrow’s Photo of the Day.

Your first peek inside the towering Burj Dubai

by Aaron Hotfelder on

The Burj Dubai, the tallest man-made building in the world at 2,684 ft., is set to be completed in the United Arab Emirates in January of 2010. The UK’s Telegraph website recently posted some rare photos from inside the nearly-finished superstructure, along with some incredible facts about the project. Among them:

  • The Burj Dubai will have the world’s fastest elevators at approximately 40 miles per hour.
  • The external surface of the skyscraper is the equal to the size of 17 football fields.
  • Like to “get high” when you party? The Burj Dubai will have a club on floors 144 through 146.
  • The building is estimated to cost roughly $4 billion, about three times more than the new Yankee Stadium.

Check out the Telegraph‘s amazing photos here. More Burj Dubai news from Gadling here.

Final resting place for the QE2 not so final after all

by Scott Carmichael on

Last year, we wrote about the very last voyage ever for the famous Cunard QE2. This magnificent vessel was purchased for $82 Million by Dubai developer Nakheel. The plan was to dock the ship, and convert her into a luxury hotel. As it turns out, that very last voyage ever is not as final as first thought.

Part of the contract with Cunard meant that Nakheel could never use the vessel as a passenger carrying cruise ship.

Of course, back when they signed that contract, they probably didn’t realize Dubai was going to suffer from the effects of the global recession.

The scope of the slowdown of the Dubai economy has now forced the final resting place of the QE2 to be put on hold, and the ship is going to act as a not-so-luxury hotel down in Cape Town for the 2010 football world cup.

It is still unknown whether the Dubai project will continue as planned or whether the resort planned around the QE2 will become yet another victim of the Dubai economic meltdown.

Dubai plans to cut up the Concorde like the QE2

by Jamie Rhein on

Dubai has a thing for buying British vessels and cutting them up. Not long ago, it snapped up the retired cruise ship the QE2 with plans to cut it in half, add a section to the middle, and turn it into a floating hotel. The latest buy it and slice it plan is with one of seven British Concorde’s.

A Dubai consortium wants to place the Concorde–sans wings, near the altered QE2 as part of its fake island creation, the Palm Jumeirah.

Even though the Concorde hasn’t flown since 2003, thus doesn’t need its wings, there are some who think that cutting off the wings is a real slap in the face to British aviation. With people upset about the QE2 alteration project, this must seem like adding insult to injury.

Granted, there’s something a bit Sci-fi about a man-made island appointed with altered British vessels. But on the other hand, it could be seen as a compliment that vehicles that aren’t being used anymore for their original use are being given another lease on life, one with clipped wings and the other with an altered body. [Mail.Online]