Abu Dhabi

A Middle Eastern Firm Is Making a $2 Billion Investment Using Trump’s Crypto

The Trump family keeps cashing in.

The Top Cities for Expats, Ranked

The InterNation Index polled nearly 12,000 expats to find out their favorite international cities to live abroad.

Big Oil’s New Slate of Desperate Buzzwords Are Greenwashing at Its Worst

The past year has been not great for oil companies. Between financial losses from the pandemic and increasing pressure from investors and the public at large to do something about how their product is messing up the planet, fossil fuel producers are feeling the heat. Big Oil’s new act appears to be convincing the public…

There’s Still Hope for Rian Johnson’s Star Wars Trilogy

Spider-Man 3 recruits a Succession alum. John Carpenter ponders a sequel to The Fog. Kong goes bananas in more Godzilla vs. Kong footage. Truth Seekers is no more. Plus, what’s next on Resident Alien and Snowpiercer. Spoilers, away! Star Wars In an interview with Sariah Wilson, Rian Johnson purportedly re-iterated that his Star Wars trilogy…

A 100 Meter Tall Starkiller Base From The Force Awakens Is Now in Abu Dhabi

That headline pretty much says it all. A company called twofour54 transformed a building in Abu Dhabi to look like Starkiller Base from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and you can watch the video above. Director J.J. Abrams chose the outskirts of the city to film the exteriors for the planet of Jakku and this…

Falconers in Abu Dhabi Train Their Raptors With Drones

In the United Arab Emirates, falconry is one of the oldest and most treasured traditions. The sport dates back to an age when falcons were used to hunt food. Today, it’s a social affair. Even the drones join in the fun. Getty photographer Dan Kitwood recently went to Abu Dhabi, where he spent time with…

Museums and Universities Are Using Forced Labor to Build in Abu Dhabi

The Guggenheim. The Louvre. NYU. All have signed on to build outposts on an island off the coast of Abu Dhabi. And according to a new report from Human Rights Watch today, the development where these institutions will be located is being built withforced labor. Saadiyat Island has been under construction since 2006, and it’s…

First view of one of the alien creatures from the new Star Wars VII

This video released today shows director J.J. Abrams on the set of Star Wars VII in Abu Dhabi, where he has just announced a competition to win a chance to travel to London and appear in the new film. Look out for the new characters lurking around as well. SPLOID is a new blog about…

Abu Dhabi’s New Park Will Hide a 30-Acre Oasis Below the Desert

The United Arab Emirates has been overrun with a surge of costly and extravagant developments over the past decade including the Palm Islands and Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Now, a 125,000 square-meter park in Abu Dhabi will join them—but this isn’t your average mega-development. The beautiful design is credited to Thomas Heatherwick, an imaginative and…

Protests Heat Up Against the Guggenheim’s New Museum in Abu Dhabi

Growing outrage against the Guggenheim’s new museum in the United Arab Emirates kicked into high gear this week: Protesters stormed the Guggenheim’s New York location for a second time, and a fake website launched claiming to solicit new, “ethical” ideas for the museum’s design. The website, which is at globalguggenheim.org, announces that the Frank Gehry-designed…

A new airport complex is taking shape in Abu Dhabi, where roughly 12,000 construction workers are on-site daily to finish the massive structure, whose floor area is larger than that of the Pentagon. According to UAE paper The National, it will take 84,000 tons of steel to build the structure’s dramatic arches, designed by New…

UAE Opens Biggest Solar Power Station In The World

The Shams Power Company opened their Shams 1 concentrated solar power station this week in Abu Dhabi. The station generates 100 MW and can power 20,000 homes while reducing CO2 emissions by 175,000 tons per year. Not to be outdone, two companies in California proposed solar towers yesterday that will generate 500 MW and power…

Dual-Action Wind Turbine Generates Power and Water

Throughout the developing world, millions of people struggle with a shortage of clean water and steady electricity. This wind turbine could solve both problems in one shot by pulling both power and water straight from the wind. The WMS1000 Wind Turbine was invented by Marc Parent and is built by the French start-up Eole Water.…

The World’s Fastest Roller Coaster Is the Closest You’ll Ever Get to Driving a Ferrari F1

You have a better chance of being mauled by a penguin than you have of driving a Ferrari F1 racer. You can, however, ride the next best thing—the Formula Rossa rollercoaster, which catapults riders around its track at 240kph. Located in Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, the world’s largest indoor theme park with over 200,000…

The World’s Tallest Building, the Burj Khalifa, Is Now Available In Lego Form

You could say the Burj Khalifa was already built from Lego last month in Brazil, but there’s no way all 31.19m could fit in my house. Lego’s Architecture series could, as long as Tom Cruise promised not to climb it. https://gizmodo.com/what-are-you-supposed-to-do-with-the-worlds-largest-leg-5790773 Lego hasn’t revealed the price yet, or even the product, which is still sheathed…

The World’s First Carbon Neutral City Opens For Business

Masdar City, the world’s first carbon neutral city that’s banned cars and skyscrapers from its streets, gives us a glimpse of what other parts of the world might look like in the future. Located in Abu Dhabi and financed by the city’s ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan (who has pumped between $15bn and…

Elevated city in Abu Dhabi will feel “70 degrees cooler” because of wind engineering

People have just started moving into Abu Dhabi’s planned eco-city Masdar, whose layout modeled on ancient Arab cities means it can withstand the region’s heat while keeping its carbon footprint tiny. Buildings like the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology are elevated off the ground so that winds can pass beneath it and keep it…

Why Sex and the City 2 is a science fiction movie

I saw Sex and the City 2 yesterday. I didn’t anticipate it would be a very good movie (indeed, it reminded me at times of Mannequin), but I also didn’t anticipate it would be a scifi film. What? First off, I’m going to assume that the average io9 reader doesn’t give a fig about Sex…

Just You Try Hacking This Gold Bar-Dispensing ATM In Abu Dhabi

In these financially uncertain times it’s not surprising people are turning to gold instead of cash, but I’d like to know how many 7-11s actually accept 24-carat gold bars these days? The Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi has just revealed the gold ATM, which spits out 10-gram bars of 24-carat gold. Each bar can…

World’s Largest LED Project: Come On, Guys

The United Arab Emirates aren’t booming like they used to, which is worrying. Judging from the latest, though, the UAE was only about three major architectural undertakings away from building an actual giant penis, so maybe it’s for the best. The Yas Hotel in Dubai’s sister Emirate, Abu Dhabi, has earned the impressive (though weirdly…