The plans are a twist on a more ambitious previous proposal to significantly overhaul the ship and convert it into a luxury hotel docked alongside one of the sheikdom's manmade palm-shaped islands.

MSN: Queen Elizabeth 2 now planned as floating hotel in Dubai

Italian collaboratives, like Archizoom and Superstudio, made witty one-liners that verged on pranks (the palm-tree-shaped floor lamp) alongside more refined riffs on modernism.

WSJ: Cue the '70s | Design

News of the financial meltdown of Dubai World, a quasi-sovereign global concern that owns 77% of the international port manager DP World and the single largest real estate developer in Dubai known for its palm-tree shaped luxury residential developments, has raced from the business pages to the headlines of the front pages in a matter of days.

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He was cranky man who smoked a pipe and kept slapping an L-shaped pica ruler into his palm.

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Sunday's fire broke out amid a group of apartment blocks on the 2km-long Trunk of the island, which is shaped like a date palm tree.

BBC: The developer says the luxury island can be seen from space