Clearly, the world is not short of good-looking table lamps with joints that allow you to direct the light towards whatever task you are doing. But this one is infinitely more covetable than any other I have seen.
To begin with, it has exceptional pedigree: it was designed by one of the world's leading architectural practices, Foster + Partners. Its genesis: Lord Foster himself wanted a lamp for his own home (a stunning glass-walled penthouse perched above his office building beside the River Thames in London) and couldn't find anything quite right.
The solution, devised by his product design team in 2005, is being manufactured by the Italian leading light of lighting, FontanaArte. And it is a stunning example of beauty in simplicity.
Each of the joints on the arm, stem and diffuser head rotates through 300 degrees, allowing light to reach any part of a table surface (as well as any other direction in the full 360-degree range).
Fine-boned, elegant and coolly modern, it is also reassuringly solid: its stem and arm are made of cast brass, while the disc-shaped diffuser is made of resin and the base of a zinc and aluminium composite called zamac.
For me, this lamp combines all of the factors that make an object truly desirable: beauty, function, quality and provenance - with the little plus of being relatively rare.
- From US$465 (Dh1,708)
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Calls
Directed by: Fede Alvarez
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Karen Gillian, Aaron Taylor-Johnson
4/5
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)
Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera
Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
How does ToTok work?
The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store
To successfully install ToTok, users are asked to enter their phone number and then create a nickname.
The app then gives users the option add their existing phone contacts, allowing them to immediately contact people also using the application by video or voice call or via message.
Users can also invite other contacts to download ToTok to allow them to make contact through the app.