Wheelchair Accessibility

It's unfortunate that the facilities invested in here go to waste so often because of people acting selfishly. In this case it causes a wheelchair user to take more than 10 minutes to board an RTA bus.

Taken from the video description... "The challenges that people with special needs face sometimes while commuting in Dubai. We appreciate a lot and thank the government of Dubai and RTA for creating a network of transportation facilities that equality treat the able and the disabled so that now people with special needs can travel around Dubai with ease. However some irresponsible and uncivilised people get into the way and cause a lot of inconvenience to to others."

Top of the Burj Khalifa - the very top

This is worth sharing as it's not an image, nor an opportunity, that most would get - or have the nerve to get.

Alisdair Miller climbed to the top of the Burj Khalifa lightning rod, and when he got there, he had the presence of mind to let go with one hand, pull out his camera, and photograph this:

At the top by Alisdair Miller As they say in Spain, the man has muy grandes cojones!  Click on the image or the link at the bottom of the image as that will take you to a larger, much sharper image.

The Dubai Jazz Combo Showcase

On Stage with The Dubai Jazz Combo

Like The Dubai Jazz Combo on Facebook.

Paris Hilton's Dubai BFF Episode 3

More groundbreaking television content....

Obviously after bagging on the consumption of alcohol in a previous episode, they logically visit a night club to go clubbing which obviously the first place you go to where alcohol is definitely not consumed under any circumstances.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSmDXjbVR9k
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw1pjgQVdos
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVLy-9GZXqE
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZTDKeSrqIk
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5uJveU_ndM

Paris Hilton's Dubai BFF EPISODE 2

Almost as sought after as Episode 3 (of a completely different series on a different continent involving a crowbar)... here comes episode 2 of Paris Hilton's Dubai BFF where Paris Hilton's only limit is... your answer in the comments

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFrmem0W91E
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NboHvK2Kww
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfMF4-VBQQ0

James Bond in Dubai in a game

Late last year Goldeneye 007 was released for the Wii, it interestingly features a segment of its story in Dubai.

Not much to see here, the game is completely devoid of kandouras or pretty much any cultural content (at all) that I can see, and lots of terrorists at the Annual Military Arms Fair in Dubai (at least according to this there's an Annual Military Arms Fair in Dubai... and its filled with terrorists)

Interesting to watch if you're interested in the not interesting. (some random walkthrough on YouTube of the level)

Paris Hilton's Dubai BFF

Paris Hilton's Dubai BFF was filmed in Dubai last year but was never released because of legal problems.

You can now enjoy the show via the youtubes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LxHPArq25o (this is the link for part 2 of the first episode, the first part is stupid.)

Best show ever?

EDIT:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFg5CWQlpg
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LxHPArq25o
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mMeo6Zo5dQ
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZk6d36xEVA
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG__YKgNJ34
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpEWI1zSOXI
Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VXJJ_wlO7M

EDIT 2:
I must announce to the world that this TV show is the first to not feature any Dubai stereotypes.

Interesting Documentary / Interview (Aqeel The VHS Collector)

I stumbled upon an interesting documentary titled "Aqeel the VHS Collector"; you can read a little about the background of the video here. Well worth a watch.

Aqeel The VHS Collector from Moath on Vimeo.

CNN interview with Sheikh Mohammed

The Government of Dubai Media Office YouTube channel has just posted this interview of Sheikh Mohammed with CNN:

Life in prison for cough syrup

There is an absolutely disgusting story in today's gulf news:

"Dubai: A pharmacist is serving a life sentence for selling a bottle of controlled medicine for Dh100, a judicial official told Gulf News.

The Indian pharmacist, identified as A.Sh. is in his mid-40s and had been working for a private hospital in Dubai. He is undergoing his punishment at Dubai Central Jail after being convicted by a court of selling a bottle of Actifed Compound Linctus for Dh100.

A.Sh. told Gulf News that he had been working as pharmacist for a private hospital in Dubai for nearly seven years and had never sold any medicine without prescriptions.

"An Emirati HIV patient identified as Khalid used to come to our hospital for treatment and doctors prescribed for him Actifed Compound Linctus," he said.

A.Sh. recalled the day when he was arrested saying that Khalid came to the hospital pharmacy asking for the medicine."

Life in prison for a bottle of Actifed Compound Lictus (known in the UAE as a controlled drug and in other countries as horrific 'cough syrup') that doesn't even contain enough codeine (10 mg) to be abused.

Keeping in mind the person that bought the cough syrup was actually prescribed to have cough syrup in the first place makes this story all the more ridiculous.

No more Emirates Business 24/7

Everyone's favorite source of optimistic recession news (formerly everyone's favorite non-negative newspaper) is going to be turned into an e-paper:

"Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Board Chairman of Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI), has given the instruction to turn the newspaper copy of Emirates Business 24|7 into a comprehensive and interactive electronic newspaper that follows up local and international events.

The new e-paper, which will be launched in the second half of next month, will reflect a variety of the knowledge and information products of DMI which operates television and radio channels and newspapers."

More here: Emirates Business to turn into e-paper (Emirates Business 24-7)

Emirates to place large plane order

"Dubai's Emirates Airline will place a large plane order at the Farnborough Air Show in July, the emirate's ruler has said.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, in an interview with CNN, said Dubai Airport's continued expansion, in addition to a large growth in passenger numbers and tourism, prompted the national airline to invest in more airplanes to keep pace with developments.

In response to a question about the secret behind the Emirates Group's $15 billion business deals following the events of 9/11, as well as the recent $11.5 billion A380 Airbus purchase during the global financial crisis, Sheikh Mohammed said that opportunities arise out of crises."

more here: Emirates plans large order at Farnborough (Trade Arabia)

These comments were made during a CNN interview with Sheikh Mohammed that is going to air soon and looks so far to be pretty interesting.

500 million AED on CCTV in 2010

‘DUBAI // Dubai police are to spend Dh500 million on security technology this year with the aim of having “cameras everywhere”.

Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the Chief of Dubai Police, said surveillance needs to be ramped up to meet the growing requirements of an expanding city.

There are 25,000 security cameras in the emirate, and the number will increase as the force begins installing a new type of smart camera that can rotate to cover what were once “dead spots”."

[...]

"The police chief said residents should not be concerned about privacy issues as more cameras are installed.

“The big number of cameras does not alter the privacy of the city’s residents and visitors,” he said. “To intrude on people’s privacy is not allowed by law and is not acceptable by our religion and tradition, so nobody in Dubai need feel scared about their privacy.”

The force has 16,500 police officers and another 4,000 administrative staff who oversee security in the city, in which there are about 60,000 buildings, according to government statistics."

More here: Dubai to spend Dh500m on security (The National)

Rent drop in 2010

Arabian Business has an interesting analysis of the decrease in rent within Dubai this year...

"The cheapest annual rent in Dubai is as little as AED22,000 for a studio in the country clusters of International City, latest figures reveal. 

Landmark Advisory's rental guide for June also showed that one-bed apartments in Palm Jumeirah are now available for AED75,000, a 20 percent drop compared to March rents listed by Dubai's real estate regulatory agency.

The study by Landmark, which said on Monday that rents had declined in even the most sought after locations since April, also showed that a studio apartment in Dubai Marina now costs as low as AED38,000."

More here: Cheapest Dubai annual rent drops to AED22,000 (Arabian Business)

iPad - The New Gadget in Town

The official launch of the iPad in the UAE seems to be set at the end of this month, but the ultra cool gadget is everywhere in the market. Being an Apple fan myself I couldn't resist waiting and got my own 64 GB Wifi edition early on.

I must say that I'm very impressed, not only the technology works, but all the services around the device also work incredibility well. Whether it is the mail exchange, MobileMe or the productivity apps that you can buy.

I used to love my Kindle, but even my kindle books look better on the iPad. The iBook are just awesome, more importantly most of the magazine I used to buy are now available digitally, so I get them as soon as they are published, and I have become more eco friendly over night.

You will need a US account to get the most out of the iPad until the UAE App store officially supports the device. However, most of the apps are currently available in UAE app store, so your not stuck with expensive paper weight until the launch.

Here are some of the Apps I have installed:

• Keynote: PowerPoint alternative for the Apple platform. Brilliant.
• Numbers: Excellent Excel alternative.
• Pages: Word alternative.
• LogMeIn: Access your laptop/PC from your iPad
• OmniGraffle: Create business graphs, mind maps
• iThoughts HD: Mind mapping
• Twetteriffic: Great Twitter Client
• Evernote: A must for everyone, makes it easy to collect notes and thoughts.
• GoodReader: Multi purpose file reader
• Things: A great To-Do list and project app
• Newsrack: Read and easily share your RSS feeds
• Kindle: All of your Amazon books on your iPad
• iBook: Gorgeous looking books on your iPad.
• Instapaper: Save web pages for late reading.
• SketchBook: Lovely art app
• Magic Piano: Create beautiful Music
• GrooveMaker: another music sequencer
• Photogene: Photoshop for the iPad.
• Star Walk: A simply amazing app for star gazers

I will do a separate post for the games, and boy there are some amazing stuff out there already.

From the first screen shot you can see that I have also jail broken my iPad. You can also jailbreak your iPad in almost 3 seconds by following the instructions here. I mainly JB'ed so I can multi task, which is something you will be able to do in the official Apple release of OS 4.0.

I also JB'ed my iPhone to use MyFi, which is like carrying around your own personal WiFi connection, which I then use to connect my iPad to the net where ever I am.

Lightning show

Something from last night....thought I'd share it here...You can view a few more shots on my blog... :)

96mm, 10secs, f10, ISO 100

Burj Khalifa

I don't care why the name changed....I don't even care what people think happened. All that matters is I'm proud of Sheikh Mohammed and I'm proud to live in this wonderful country....and a name change is not going to change that.... :)

Anyway thought I'd share a shot I took today at the inauguration....

17mm, 1/3sec, f4.5, ISO 200

Rainbow....Jan 1st 2010

Just wanted to share this shot that I took today.... :)(note: the spots in the image are rain drops on the lens... :| )

The Daily Show: United Arab Emirage

This has been flowing around twitter today:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
United Arab Emirage
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Laid off for implicating Emirates Airlines

Dubai Media Observer links to a Reporters Without Borders article titled "Laid off for implicating Emirates Airlines"

"The exclusive account of Courtney C. Radsch, a US journalist who recently lost her job at the Al Arabiya news website (www.alarabiya.net) in the United Arab Emirates for posting information about safety violations by the national air carrier, Emirates Airlines.

“ On Sunday Oct. 4 one of my reporters asked me if we could write about a report on safety concerns at Emirates Airlines following a report about pilot fatigue. Since the report was from a respected Australian paper based on a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) for a report from the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) and I assessed that the story was newsworthy and in the public interest. We sought and received a response from the airline which we featured in the lede and devoted an entire section of the story to. The story was on the site for about 4 hours before I received a call from Dawood al-Shirian, the manager of AlArabiya.net, telling me to remove the story from the site."

Read the DMO post: Nose-dive/Crash landing/[insert aviation disaster pun here] for more.