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Of Course Dubai is Building a 500-Foot Gold-Plated Picture Frame

The Dubai Frame
Dubai is a bit like the Houston of the Middle East. It’s unapologetically bold, brash, and over-the-top — a city that elevates conspicuous consumption to an art form. Every monument, building, and theme park is more lavish and expensive than the last. So, when architects imagined framing the city’s skyline with a 50-story-tall, gold-leafed picture frame, no one batted an eye.

This month will see the opening of The Dubai Frame. The massive frame consists of two 150-meter-high glass towers — roughly 500 feet, or 50 stories, to us Statesiders — making it the world’s largest picture frame. A glass bridge will connect the towers, providing visitors with a panoramic view of the city, including Karama, Deira, Bur Dubai, and the Emirates tower. On the ground floor, a museum and gallery will feature interactive exhibits and 3D projections of the city’s old quarter, which will make use of virtual reality technology to explain its history.

The Dubai Frame
The Dubai Frame/Facebook

The designers’ intent was to “frame” (get it?) the two sides — old and new — of the city. To put it more esoterically: “The idea is to create an illusion of time travel through a warp vortex and arriving into the city 50 years ahead.”

From its location in popular Zabeel Park, visitors will be able to scope out the city’s old quarter (to the north) and New Dubai (in the south), and vice-versa. While the frame was initially slated to be silver, the designers felt that didn’t pack enough punch. It was changed to gold plating to more strongly reflect the sun and intensify its brightness.

The Dubai Frame joins a long list of over-the-top attractions aimed at increasing tourism to the city. Most notable are the famed Burj Khalifa (at nearly a half-mile high, it’s the world’s tallest building) and Burj Al Arab (often called “the most luxurious hotel in the world”). The Frame alone is projected to attract 2 million visitors each year.

The project has already seen numerous setbacks and weathered waves of controversy. In spite of them all, the Frame opened this month (January 2018), and advanced purchase tickets are available through a dedicated pre-booking website for about USD $14 for adults.

All the reasons to visit Dublin (that have nothing to do with St. Patrick’s Day)
There's more to Dublin than shamrocks and leprechauns and drinking Guinness on St. Patrick's Day — a lot more
dublin ireland river

Since its founding by Vikings well over a thousand years ago, Dublin's fortunes have waxed and waned with successive waves of migrants and invaders. From the Celts that first inhabited the lush landscapes of the Dublin area to the Norman invasion of the 12th century and on through more than half a millennium of colonization by the British, Dublin has remained the center of Irish commerce, culture, and craft.

And it's no different today. Ireland and Dublin, in particular, are riding high on a wave of tech-industry powerhouses, making this city a global player. For anyone planning a visit to Dublin, we recommend you stay at the Conrad Dublin Hotel, prep yourself with a Dublin Pass, and go over this list of the best reasons to visit Dublin — and not one has anything to do with St. Patrick's Day (though this city certainly does that day, well four days, right).
The food

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A Stitch Fix expert tells us what to pack for a long weekend getaway this winter
Use this expert's advice to create a packing list for your next weekend adventure
Various dress clothes out ready to be packed.

The winter months give you a lot to put up with, depending on where you live: Inches (or feet) of snow to be cleared off the drive, salt stains on your pants and coats, biting winds that hurt your face, and drivers sliding on ice. So it isn't all that surprising that many of us dream of a long weekend away to take a break from our winter blues. Of course, if you do decide to take off for a long weekend, you'll need to pack — and figuring out what to put on your packing list may be one of the most stressful parts of your journey.

Lauren Nelson has been a stylist for Stitch Fix for nearly a decade, the majority of it as a stylist supervisor. She knows style, and she knows what you should take with you. Here are the five things that she believes should be on your list of what to pack for vacation.

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Travelers beware: These are the worst U.S. airports that lose the most baggage
There are two types of air traveler: Those who've had their luggage go missing, and those who will eventually
A man in a suit listening to music while hauling his luggage in the airport.

Flyin’ ain’t easy. Sure, modern air travel — especially long-haul flights — is a technical marvel, but it can be pretty awful, too. And, in the last three years since the pandemic, it’s only gotten worse. Ever-shrinking seats, constant COVID concerns, in-flight booze restrictions, and random air rage are all enough to make even the most patient air passengers crack under the pressure. Now, there’s one more worry to add to the mix: Lost luggage. A new report finds that there are two kinds of travelers: Those who’ve had their luggage lost and those who will eventually.

Price4Limo.com combed through an official report released last year by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Unless you’re really bored or have a strange fascination with airline industry statistics, we don’t suggest you comb through the 57-page document. But there are a few key takeaways. The first and most surprising is that a whopping 55% of air travelers have had the pleasure of an airline losing their luggage. That means your odds are better than half that, at some point in your flying career, your favorite new luggage is bound to go missing. What’s worse: Only one-third of those passengers ever see their luggage again. According to Price4Limo.com, the average wait time to get those bags back was almost a week. For most vacation travelers, that usually means being without their belongings for their entire time away.

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