A floating house sunk in bad weather near the Burj Al Arab. Police said there were no injuries and the structure was vacant.
The Kleindienst Group described it as a temporary platform that looked like a house created for the New Year’s Eve celebrations.
A team of divers from the Dubai Police checked the space for occupants on Wednesday when the incident occurred but found it empty, according to Lt Col Ahmed Burqibah of the search and rescue squad.
“Our divers were sent in case any rescue was needed. This is part of our safety procedure but there was nobody in the house,” Lt Col Burqibah said.
“It went down under the water and we were called. It was in bad weather conditions.”
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The developer, the Kleindienst Group had showcased homes called the Floating Seahorses last year.
“The platform provided for Sea Dubai’s New Year’s Eve celebrations off the coast of the Burj Al Arab hotel was created specifically for that event to provide a stage for lights and sound equipment for the New Year’s eve event,” a spokesman said.
“Due to adverse and unexpectedly rough seas, the platform suffered a failure and sank. No one was on board at the time of the incident nor did the sinking pose any environmental risks.”
The developer is building a cluster of six islands as part of the Heart of Europe project. The group said the platform that sank was not among the floating houses developed for the Heart of Europe project, but built specifically for the New Year event.
“The platform was securely anchored, however freak 6 to 8 feet high waves close to shore caused the platform to fail,” the spokesman said.
“None of the Floating Seahorses being developed by the Kleindienst Group will ever sit in open waters, but will be located in The World archipelago protected by breakwaters, where the waves will not exceed 50 cm high.”
What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
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The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
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Stree
Producer: Maddock Films, Jio Movies
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee
Rating: 3.5
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company profile: buybackbazaar.com
Name: buybackbazaar.com
Started: January 2018
Founder(s): Pishu Ganglani and Ricky Husaini
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech, micro finance
Initial investment: $1 million