Burj Dubai now officially the tallest building in the world.

Yeah, formatting no help.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6910536.stm

I'll be in Dubai for one day in August, so I guess I'll see it from an air-conditioned room somewhere (if I step outside I'll probably collapse).

what a hideous thing.

I do like that there's no pussyfooting around this time when it comes to height... none of this 1,776 ft vs. 1,700 feet. Fuck it. Let's go from 670 Meters to 800 METERS

I can't imagine wanting to set foot in that thing. I don't usualy have a fear of heights but WTF IT IS HALF A MILE TALL.

"It's a human achievement without equal."

proof that the pyramids were built by aliens!

TS: The polio vaccine vs A really fucking tall building

TS: Irrigation vs A really fucking tall building

TS: Written language vs A really fucking tall building

(etc etc etc)

dubai is hilarious to me.

I like that there is a Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and they had something called the International Height Criteria Meeting.

it's fascintaing to see a new metropolis flowering so gracefully and organically

love it

http://www.skidubai.com/skidubai/dubai/project-burj-dubai.jpg

Someone needs to pop one of these on the top of the spire:

http://www.ziplink.net/users/jlind/Images/jackhead1.gif

I think all the buildings nearest in height should stack extra shit on top until they've eclipsed this one, then Dubai will respond in kind and so forth until one of the buildings reaches heaven/collapses and destroys its city, like a large scale one potato, two potato game.

also

Council on Tall Buildings

I want in this club.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t214/ZachRScott/dubaiheaven.jpg

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/5158/shabbyburjeg1.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/tower.jpg

video about the burj dubai surpassing taipei 101, and then some speculation about the al burj, down the street, passing this one up at some point, renderings included

I was looking at a job in dubai!

Don't do it dude.

thx 4 ur help thousands of underpaid immigrant laborers who werent allowed to unionize (lol), run along now

i think it might be an interesting place to work for a while, provided you realize that you will hate it the whole time

like, the sort of experience you may want to have had, but not to actually have

Everytime I read about something like this...

http://img252.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shabbyburjeg1co9.jpg

i would love to just go to Dubai and Abu Dhabi for six months, take pictures of all the astounding architecture, and then leave forever.

table otm. except maybe just a few weeks, in the winter.

i think it might be an interesting place to work for a while, provided you realize that you will hate it the whole time

like, the sort of experience you may want to have had, but not to actually have

I tried to get my ex to take me to Dubai(Her family lived there for a few years while her father worked as a pilot for some rich guy), but she flat out refused.
Told me there was no way in hell she was going back there. The stories she told me were fucked up, but I would still like to go someday(My mom and sister went to visit the shopping festival and meet some people, but I was sick for three weeks straight so I had to skip it....... argh)

And the pictures...

Yeah srsly Jon don't work in Dubai. We have an office there. Its hot, dry, you cant drink booze.

Mind you they do have that giant indoor tunnel thing you can ski in. Thats pretty awesome in a desert.

And those islands in the shape of countries of the world they built. You have to love crazy people with too much money.

You have to love crazy people with too much money.

Dear Trayce,

It gets old.

Signed,
An American

http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/03/petroleum-prices-and-gcc-spending.html

O RLY

http://blog.wired.com/cars/electric_vehicles/index.html

FUK U

fingers xd

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/WORLD/meast/06/25/duibai.tower/art.dubai.ap.jpg

this may be better even than the world the palm the underwater hotel indoor skiing and the solid gold hotel !!!

-----------------------------

Dubai 'shape-shifting skyscraper' unveiled

(CNN) -- Ambitious plans to build a revolutionary 420-meter shape-shifting skyscraper in Dubai have been unveiled by architects.
Each floor of the tower would rotate independently, architects claim, creating an ever-shifting shape.

Each floor of the tower would rotate independently, architects claim, creating an ever-shifting shape.

The 80-story Dynamic Tower, described as the "world's first building in motion," will also be the first skyscraper constructed from prefabricated units, according to a press statement released by New York-based architect David Fisher's Dynamic Group.

Each floor would be capable of rotating independently, powered by wind turbines fitted between each floor.

"You can adjust the shape the way you like every given moment," Fisher said. "It's not a piece of architecture somebody designed today and that's it. It remains forever. It's designed by life, shaped by time." Video Watch how the tower would spin and twist »

Apartments will sell for about $3,000 per square foot, making each unit range in price from about $4 million to $40 million. Work on the tower is to be completed by 2010, according to Dynamic's Web site.

Fisher said that plans to build a second rotating skyscraper in Moscow were at an advanced stage and that the group intended to build a third tower in New York. He said developers and public officials in Canada, Europe and South Korea had also expressed interest in the project.
Don't Miss

But some have expressed skepticism. Fisher has never built a skyscraper before. He says he has teamed up with reputed architects and engineers in the United Kingdom and India.

Although he has received a development license for construction in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, he has not disclosed the site of the building. The Moscow mayor's office said that it was looking into the project and that a decision had not been made.

Fisher has called prefabricated construction techniques the "future of architecture" and says they will radically transform 4,000-year-old "brick-on-brick" building methods.

By using preconstructed parts, Fisher said each story could be built in just seven days, resulting in environmentally cleaner building methods.

He said that just 600 people on an assembly site and 80 technicians on the construction site would be needed to build the tower, compared with about 2,000 workers for a traditional project of a comparable scale.

"It is unbelievable that real estate and construction, which is the leading sector of the world economy, is also the most primitive," Fisher is quoted as saying on Dynamic's Web site.
advertisement

"Most workers throughout the world still regularly use trowels that was first used by the Egyptians and then by the Romans. Buildings should not be different than any other product, and from now on they will be manufactured in a production facility."

Dubai is experiencing a construction boom, with the Burj tower set to claim the title of the world's tallest building when it is completed in 2009. It is already home to the world's largest mall, and despite being in the Middle East, it boasts the largest indoor snow park in the world.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/27537/original.jpg

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/27538/original.jpg

video > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/25/dubais-moving-skyscraper_n_109274.html

Rotating skyscraper! A new high water mark for architectural fannydangle

o i dont click on thread w/fannydangle in the title

How long until one of these is somewhat underengineered or assembled with mediocre parts/labor and there's a disaster?

Not likely - there's a higher chance of collapse on smaller projects as there's not as much attention focused on them. I'd have some concerns about the rotating skyscraper if I thought it was actually going to happen.

True, it's not like they're constructing these in the absence of supervision, either.

I was theorizing with a friend the other day that this is just a scheme to see who can get more free elevators. Companies will usually provide free elevator work to the tallest buildings as a promotional tool, and the larger the building the more elevators there are.

o i dont click on thread w/fannydangle in the title
LOLLL

Sun, sea and sewage!

A noxious tide of toilet paper, raw sewage and chemical waste has transformed Dubai’s most prestigious stretch of shoreline into a foul-smelling health hazard.

A stretch of the exclusive Jumeirah Beach — a magnet for Western tourists and home to a string of hotels — has been closed. “It’s a cesspool. Our tests show too many E. coli to count. It’s like swimming in a toilet,” said Keith Mutch, the manager of the Offshore Sailing Club, which has posted warnings and been forced to cancel regattas.The pollution is a blow to Dubai’s reputation as an international holiday destination offering almost guaranteed sunshine and clear seas.

The debate over who is to blame is also turning toxic, pitting the city’s wealthy expatriates against local authorities, who have been criticised for failing to stop lorry drivers dumping human and industrial waste into the ocean.

The row also illustrates how Dubai’s rapid development threatens to outpace the Emirates’ ability to enforce environmental standards, angering the foreigners that the boom town seeks to attract. Mr Mutch first detected trouble during a walk on the beach last summer. “The stench was unbearable and the water was a muddy brown. There was toilet paper in the sand,” he recalled.

He traced the sludge to a storm drain, buried behind a pile of rocks near the dock. It was spewing effluent into the sea. He followed the drain several kilometres inland to the Al Quoz industrial area, which houses the cement, paint and furniture factories that have helped to fuel the city’s rapid growth.

There he discovered that dozens of sewage lorries carrying human waste from Dubai’s 1.3 million inhabitants emptied their tanks into storm drains such as the one leading to the sailing club. The drains, all connected, were built to carry excess water that falls during Dubai’s short rainy season.

According to some truckers — mostly poor workers from southern Asia – illegal dumping of waste is a purely financial decision.

In interviews, several said that they were paid by the truckload to collect waste from the city’s septic tanks and transport it to the only sewage treatment plant in the area.

This involved a long drive into the desert with lengthy queues at the end — so they opted to dump their loads in the storm drains.“We are paid so poorly, we have no other choice,” said one driver, who insisted on remaining anonymous.

Mr Mutch spent several nights documenting the illegal dumping. He sent letters and photographs to the municipality and departments of tourism, health and environment.“At first I was ignored,” he said — but when the local press took up the story the city took action, imposing fines of up to $25,000 and threatening to confiscate tankers and deport drivers. City authorities have since promised to build another sewage pit as a “medium-term solution”, while insisting that the latest test results show water samples to be within safe standards.

Mr Mutch, however, disagrees, citing independent tests commissioned by the sailing club showing that the water is still badly contaminated with bacteria, human faeces and chemicals.

“The water is still not safe. It’s a bleak situation and we don’t know what else we can do,” he said.

Fascinating article, "The Dark Side of Dubai."

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

Countdown until every Ballard-knockoff author writes a book set in collapsing Dubai in 5... 4... 3...

they couldn't even compete with this

The work is "the worst in the world," he says. "You have to carry 50kg bricks and blocks of cement in the worst heat imaginable ... This heat – it is like nothing else. You sweat so much you can't pee, not for days or weeks. It's like all the liquid comes out through your skin and you stink. You become dizzy and sick but you aren't allowed to stop, except for an hour in the afternoon. You know if you drop anything or slip, you could die.

When I ask the British expats how they feel to not be in a democracy, their reaction is always the same. First, they look bemused. Then they look affronted. "It's the Arab way!" an Essex boy shouts at me in response, as he tries to put a pair of comedy antlers on his head while pouring some beer into the mouth of his friend, who is lying on his back on the floor, gurning.

Here, off the coast of Dubai, developers have been rebuilding the world. They have constructed artificial islands in the shape of all planet Earth's land masses, and they plan to sell each continent off to be built on. There were rumours that the Beckhams would bid for Britain. But the people who work at the nearby coast say they haven't seen anybody there for months now. "The World is over," a South African suggests.

There was an article on exactly this same thing in the Guardian last year.

Perhaps Dubai disturbed me so much, I am thinking, because here, the entire global supply chain is condensed. Many of my goods are made by semi-enslaved populations desperate for a chance 2,000 miles away; is the only difference that here, they are merely two miles away, and you sometimes get to glimpse their faces? Dubai is Market Fundamentalist Globalisation in One City.

right down to their garbage showing up on their own beaches instead of the pacific trash vortex! I'm glad he ended with this paragraph, it could have been stressed earlier.

dubai sounds like a dictator's version of vegas. the original sucks bad enough : (

Good article, but small warning: some of it can't be correct. Consulates aren't restricted in issuing passports, and exist only to protect their own nationals - why would they refuse to issue new ones to their citizens being held as slaves? The only conceivable reason would be if the slaves were part of a massive counterfeiting ring, which doesn't seem worth it for Bangladeshi documents. Nevertheless, if even half of the rest of it is right, that's disgusting.

Subtext: 'it was all right until they started bothering me too!'

First sentence in that article is amazing

Herve Jaubert, a French spy who left espionage to make leisure submarines for the wealthy, was riding high.

I know! He says he's writing a book.

Credit crunch signals end of The World for Dubai’s multi-billion dollar property deal

(again the first sentence is amazing)

England is deserted, Australia and New Zealand have merged, and the man who bought Ireland has killed himself.

They were designed to make Dubai the envy of the world: a series of paradise islands inhabited by celebrities and the super-rich reclaimed from the azure waters of the Arabian Gulf and shaped like a map of the Earth. It was called The World.

As millions of tonnes of rock were dumped into the sea for the foundations, timely leaks suggested that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were to buy Ethiopia, Sir Richard Branson was tipped to occupy England, while Rod Stewart would border him in Scotland.

Instead it has become the world’s most expensive shipping hazard, guarded by private security in fast boats and ringed by warning buoys to keep the curious away. A development that was meant to send Dubai’s star into the firmament of First World cities has been left to the mercy of the waves and the baking winds.

Mile after mile of breakwater built from boulders brought hundreds of miles by ship has been laid, but inside its man-made lagoon, work has completely stopped. The expected map of the world of 300 islands is instead a disjointed and desolate collection of sandy blots — a monumental folly just out of sight of Dubai’s shore.

http://www.ethanbee.com/burj-nyc.jpg

new caprica

Oops:

The government of Dubai, in a blunt acknowledgment of the severity of its financial position, said on Wednesday that it had asked its banks for a six-month stay on its schedule of debt repayments.

The terse statement came in the middle of negotiations between creditors and Dubai World, the corporate arm of Dubai, which has led many of its most ambitious real estate projects, but is now struggling under the burden of $59 billion in liabilities.

I blame Rory McIlroy.

i am sortof really enjoying watching the collapse of this retarded fantasy-land. it's all over bloomsberg today.

Local police have found at least 3,000 automobiles -- sedans, SUVs, regulars -- abandoned outside Dubai International Airport in the last four months. Police say most of the vehicles had keys in the ignition, a clear sign they were left behind by owners in a hurry to take flight.

i like to picture some sort of carnal mass exodus; the labyrinth begins to crumble and chaos grips the population who are forced to discover they're in the middle of the arabian desert. they fight one another with ski poles and are forced to eat silicon tits. they're all wearing eye patches.

http://www.cineastentreff.de/teleschau/200637/3/200637_173565_1_024.jpg

That 3,000 cars left at the airport is a bit of a myth...
http://parkingtoday.typepad.com/parking_blog/2009/02/3000-abandoned.html
...still nice image.

I'm already bored of "buildings built on sand" metaphors.

Buildings built OF sand = far cooler:

http://extra.listverse.com/amazon/sandcastles/sand-castle-to-the-sun.jpg

i am sortof really enjoying watching the collapse of this retarded fantasy-land

Yep. I work with a few Pakistanis some of whom always bang on about this place and hold it up as some ideal. I would've loled about this news story with them today but it was Eid al-Adha - "muslim Christmas" - and they were all away.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2082/2418848398_4a27188dbf_o.jpg

i am sortof really enjoying watching the collapse of this retarded fantasy-land

ditto, dubai represents everything that is wrong with the world imo

Has anyone been? I feel a little uneasy sniping when I don't even know how big it is.

"i am sortof really enjoying watching the collapse of this retarded fantasy-land"

unless there will be a domino effect

srsly?

i mean, i get what yr saying, i think, but fuck a place built on slave labor and wanton disregard for anyone that isn't hell of wealthy

I love that some guy has a blog about "Parking Today". So Pythonesque.

I've been to Dubai, but only in transit so I saw bugger all of the place. I'd never go there for fun - its too easy to do the slightest wrong thing and get locked up.

omg is that pic for real? it is A M A Z I N G

It won't stop me, don't worry. It just occurred to me how odd it is that I can't imagine what it'd be like to physically be there in the way that I can for loads of other places I've never been. It's on telly often enough, but always long-lens shots and curiously empty, featureless scenes. I honestly wouldn't be entirely shocked if I learnt that it didn't actually exist.

Has anyone been? I feel a little uneasy sniping when I don't even know how big it is.

― Ismael Klata, Friday, November 27, 2009 11:27 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

have seen it in passing. it's big and brash. what surprises me now is that it wasn't 'built' on oil but on bank loans, because the noises have always been that dubai et al would continue building because activity wasn't bank-dependent. it would appear otherwise now.

but comments above re slave labour etc are entirely correct. old style western capitalism displaces to middle east.

Flying over the desert and into Dubai at sunrise was a pretty awesome experience. Everything was cast in a pink glow, and it was white sand and ocean for miles... little white huts everywhere, and then suddenly this ridonkulous shiny city.

Airport was full of menacing guys with AK-47 rifles and there were dishevelled looking Indian/Pakistani groups sleeping in piles on the floor of the airport. Next to which was a giant glass display containing a gold BMW. It did my head in completely and I was only there for about an hour.

It's the biggest bubble there ever was. There was too much money sloshing around the world for too long and it had to go somewhere - and once all the useful stuff had been built all that was left was to build a gigantic, useless piece of shit and call it Dubai. It had no reason to exist then and it doesn't now. Tell me why that's too harsh.

World's tallest buildings mania correlates pretty well with total economic collapse, doesn't it? Just saying.

― Ismael Klata, Monday, October 20, 2008 6:58 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Burj Dubai is expected to be completed and ready for occupancy on 4 January 2010.

ok so i thought about this more at school today and got a little worked up. i also think maybe i should apologize for calling dubai a fantasy-land - it isn't. there are real people there and real lives; thats what makes me so upset. it's just's such a bizzare stunt and so unstable/unsustainable that i would say it's therefore totally unethical. they proposed building a 'branded luxury tower' based on the theme of formula 1 driver michael schumacher. like who is flying the plane here? an akward 11 y/o boy? i mean i could go on and on and on...

but i won't. and i know you're sick of 'buildings on sand' metaphors but that ozymandius poem came to mind today as well. ismael is otm. i wouldn't be surprised if this place didn't really exist.

I've said it elsewhere and I'll say it here: fuck Dubai.

^^^ real talk

COSINE

well yeah

lol airport impressions:

sterile, boring, pretty ethnically diverse airport workers.

i was super tired, sorry.

it's not just Dubai.. i have a friend who works in Qatar. He has his 1) apartment 2) SUV 3) gasoline and 4) groceries paid for by the company he works for. so his salary is pure profit. every second of his day is air-conditioned. whereas 90% of the country is destitute.

Qatar is miles clear at the top of a per capita GDP table I saw (along with I think, Equatorial Guinea). Very dispiriting - I'd assumed it largely had its act together, on basis of fairly superficial things like al-Jazeera and top international conferences being there. It's horrifying to contemplate how wealthy the top few dozen guys in EG must be.

I can't remember who, but someone on ILG said Dubai would be the perfect setting for a GTA game, which is true in 100% every way.

Let me join the chorus of people saying "Fuck Dubai." I mean this is a place that is marketing itself as the world's premier golf destination and players are queuing up to design courses there. Golf courses in a desert. How much water are they sucking up to make these things viable?

I remember now a friend of mine going on holiday to Dubai maybe five year back. He loved it, but I can't remember if he ever gave any reasons. This guy does tend towards an anti-imperialist narrative to explain every world event ever, so it's very possible that he was into it just because it's not western.

I just met someone tonight who was in the navy 2002-2006ish and said she was in Dubai toward the beginning of that time and thought it was great. I felt bad, because I know I can't stray far from my sentiment, but I feel like a dick saying "yeeaaah... but were the motel rooms cheap because of why you were there? isn't there a horrible income disparity?" I tried to mention it's like the Las Vegas effect, where huge monetary influences warp the hell out of the local cityscape, although instead of tourist money Dubai is largely oil and failed business interest... I dunno, I feel like a dick.

Dubai's economy is not solely based on oil revenue, at least not directly. It's one of the largest shipping and transport hubs in the world. For what that's worth.

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/showcase-85/?hp

I think 'fuck Dubai' is all well and good if you think of it as sitting in a little isolationist bubble but the global fall-out from this could be pretty bad for the rest of us, right?

I've said it elsewhere and I'll say it here: fuck Dubai.

― mh, Saturday, 28 November 2009 04:54 (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^ real talk

― ¨°º¤ø„¸¸„ø¤º°¨ (Lamp), Saturday, 28 November 2009 04:55 (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

COSINE

― Pedro Paramore (jim), Saturday, 28 November 2009 04:56 (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well yeah

― itdn put butt in the display name (gbx), Saturday, 28 November 2009 04:57 (3 days ago) Bookmark

and fuck switzerland

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2009/11/dubai_1975.html

It seems to me that it's easy (and in some ways fair) to revel in schadenfreude over Dubai's situation, but this situation is surely not going to improve the already dismal lot of the migrant workforce there. I'm probably naive, but given that people are there because they want to work (and cannot find work in the Philippines etc), then they are now even more fucked than they were previously, when they at least had some kind of wage coming in?

Plenty of rich types may be taking a bath, but the people who will *really* suffer are the ones at the bottom of the pile.

yeah, i'm not a giant dubai enthusiast, but i wonder if the "fuck dubai" sentiment reflects the assumption that our (western) wealth and privilege is untainted by indentured underclasses working for slave waves. cuz they ain't.

i mean, it's not like dubai invented the "grotesque cash-spouting disneyland" urban design aesthetic.

^ like that but with better grammar

no it is because we are all too aware of this fact, but that dubai is like a grotesque and ultimate totem for the whole process - in saying 'fuck dubai' we say 'fuck the whole life-sapping caboodle'

also dubai IS like some kind of inaccessible alien land, whereas most metropolises are at least navigable to common man - it is exclusivism writ large

yeah, i get that, but it seems strange to pillory someone else for reflecting a magnification of your own sins (if that makes snese). not a big deal, cuz i'd just as likely say fuck las vegas or fuck bevery hills, but something about it ruffles me a little.

i ruffle too easy, if experience is an indicator.

"if that makes snese sneeze"

Dubai seems to be deliberately fudging the issue of whether the debt they've defaulted on is corporate or sovereign debt. If it's the latter, this could be a bad thing for everyone - anything that undermines confidence in sovereign debt could cause problems for Britain, the US and any other major economies that have borrowed heavily to fund government stimulus packages.

like dubai = some kind of fucked-up wicker man for the american dream

not xpost, just crack-brained muttering...

re matt: isn't that (in part) why an entity like dubai world would exist in the first place? so that it could take on investment risks on behalf of the government without endangering the government's financial credibility? had heard that dubai world was in trouble wr2 bad debt, but not the gov't itself.

Dubai seems to be deliberately fudging the issue of whether the debt they've defaulted on is corporate or sovereign debt. If it's the latter, this could be a bad thing for everyone - anything that undermines confidence in sovereign debt could cause problems for Britain, the US and any other major economies that have borrowed heavily to fund government stimulus packages.

i think my understanding of the world would be a lot sounder if i knew why stuff like this is true, or how it works - i understand the terms but the workings of basic economics always escape my comprehension - how 2 solve

so that it could take on investment risks on behalf of the government without endangering the government's financial credibility? had heard that dubai world was in trouble wr2 bad debt, but not the gov't itself.

This is the bit I don't get, surely the government would have to back Dubai World anyway, in the same way that the British government would have to back a nationalised bank that was in trouble? I don't get how the government is supposed to be insulated from the risk here.

well, as i understand it (i.e. imagine it), dubai world is largely backed by the government, but is not, legally speaking, precisely equivalent to the government. i could see why the government might want to let the investment entity fail rather than continue pouring money into a hole. not sure to what extent this would mean that dubai had faulted on sovereign debt, cuz i don't know how the contracts are arranged.

the people who will *really* suffer are the ones at the bottom of the pile

If it does all go as it looks it might, what exactly is going to happen to these people? As a rough guess: population of 2.2m, 25% locals, smidgen of highish-end western workers = roughly 1.4 million foreign labourers. Presumably mostly south asian construction workers and south-east asian domestic staff. Stuck in a ghost city with two remaining businesses - port and fuel-stop airport. In the desert.

batoru rowairu

When I think of Dubai I always have images of the Fifth Elements Paradise hotel ship.

this is a place that is marketing itself as the world's premier golf destination

then fuck this place, but good luck to all the people.

well, as i understand it (i.e. imagine it), dubai world is largely backed by the government, but is not, legally speaking, precisely equivalent to the government.

Dubai is Dubai World’s sole shareholder.

Dubai seems to be deliberately fudging the issue of whether the debt they've defaulted on is corporate or sovereign debt. If it's the latter, this could be a bad thing for everyone - anything that undermines confidence in sovereign debt could cause problems for Britain, the US and any other major economies that have borrowed heavily to fund government stimulus packages.

It appears that Dubai World defaulted on commercial real estate holdings. The implications are problematic, but minor in a macro perspective. I believe the immediate consequence is a considerable asset sell-off. If this is true, the effect on the United States will be cursory at best. Great Britain, Dubai World’s principle debt holder should be more concerned. But both the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal have reported that individual exposure is not an issue (however, the Journal later reported that Standard Chartered’s exposure is material—but I haven’t read confirmation elsewhere). That said, it is likely Abu Dhabi will bail out Dubai World rendering this story a non-issue.

Great some really great pics in the nytimes today

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/showcase-85/?hp

When I say fuck Dubai, I really mean the premises it's built on, from the financial tower of cards to the idea that making a city in that area with all these landmark buildings but no context is an idea.

I don’t disagree with your sentiment, but the same could’ve been said about the establishment or development of Amsterdam, Frankfurt, New York City, London, Zurich, etc.

why on earth would anyone say the same about blah blah blah?

this place has been created almost strictly as a playground for the wealthy, unlike those cities

Amsterdam, Frankfurt, New York City, London, Zurich etc. are kind of examples of the opposite of Dubai.

"cities that still have money"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWVLzVhnYE0

"The tower wobbles, dreadfully, so if my hands are shaking..."

My hands are sweating just watching.

I haven't even played it - that still alone is terrifying enough.

Pretty sure there's absolutely nothing on earth that could make me go up there.

"highest point in the world"

er

Earlier this week we watched the video of Federer and Agassi playing tennis on top of that ridiculous helipad and it was the most terrifying thing I've seen in ages.

"highest point in the world"

er

Come on, cut the guy some slack, he's clinging to the top of a tower a little wider than he is, 2684 ft up, and it's swaying.

and the city underneath him is CRUMBLING

Me in Dubai:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mohsenhz/95442507/in/photostream/

And it's open!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8439618.stm
Awesome fireworks.

there is one word

and that word is 'preposterous'

well done humankind

Sheikh Mohammed described the tower as "the tallest building ever created by the hand of man".

Word I was thinking of was "hubris" but sincerely hope not.

well how the fuck would you go about destroying that thing - you'd need like a megaton of tnt located strategically at the foundation pillars. or the entire air force of france to do a kamikaze mission simultaneously

Nah not really seriously but that quote read like some Tower of Babel shit and having thought the thought I wanted to make it clear I didn't really think it wd be struck down by some vengeful godlet.

well all i'll say is that if it does fall, i hope there's some opportunistic buck with a video camera and a youtube account lurking

well how the fuck would you go about destroying that thing - you'd need like a megaton of tnt located strategically at the foundation pillars. or the entire air force of france to do a kamikaze mission simultaneously

Surplus Kazakhstan nuke?

Seeing as it's actually undeniably true, "the tallest building ever created by the hand of man" is probably the least hubristic thing about that whole place

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/01/the-burj-dubai-and-architectures-vacant-stare.html

^^good article i thought. made it seem a bit reminiscent of the ryugyong hotel. shinier and less overtly mordor-creepy, but w/similar underlying motivations and overreach...

I quite like the readers' comments too, unusually - but seeing the Dubai cheerleaders' ones is always very weird

I heard someone on TV today sillily say that the top of it was the highest point on earth. I'm guessing that'll provide some inspiration for the next epic project. (Either that or the shortcut of just sticking a mile high building on top of Mount Everest.)

Surely a one story building on the top of Everest would be sufficient?

I've been to the top of taipei 101 and it failed to impress - maybe being another 1000 foot up in the air will do the trick

I always feel like "come on, we've all sat in window seats on planes before..."

they designed this one so that nobody, NOBODY will build anything taller for decades. rather than increase the "world's tallest building" height by, i dunno, a few hundred feet, this one is just a fucking monster. totally ridiculous. and built, more or less, by indentured servants. congrats, mankind.

unless.................. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile-High_Tower

http://www.wildcoast.com/files/u1/Lorax-unless.jpg

whoa.

i didn't like that LA Times article. seemed to keen to identify a zeitgeist and cut a lot of corners to do so. the fascination with abandoned urban spaces in america goes back to the 1970s (when the industrial economy of the midwest was really in freefall)--if not earlier. and there are no shortage of post-apocalyptic movies in earlier eras. i mean it's sort of constant, actually.

So basically the Burj Dubai is a giant rigor mortis boner.

i didn't like that LA Times article. seemed to keen to identify a zeitgeist and cut a lot of corners to do so.

Agreed. I was baffled by reference to the Sahara in Las Vegas without saying anything about the CityCenter megaproject which just opened up this month. Reservations are off at the Sahara because it's old, squalid, and non-competitive with newer hotels.

xp it's the Burj Khalifa now... i will admit to being just a bit boyishly impressed by how the fuck you even go about building a 828 m skyscraper, but in theory i agree it's disgraceful and horrible etc.

http://www.paulschutze.com/uploads/4/5/8/9/458975/149136.jpg

Too bad the Dubai City Tower won't ever make it off the drawing board as it's the penultimate stupid building.

Reservations are off at the Sahara because it's old, squalid, and non-competitive with newer hotels.

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, January 4, 2010 10:27 PM (1 hour ago)

err... also vegas tourism is at record lows. can't tell you how many $39-49/night offers at Encore/Wynn/Bellagio I got over the past 12 months. i'd hate to imagine how much the older hotels are going for.

I'd be very surprised if you're getting $49 a night offers for the Wynn/Encore complex unless it's in combination with an airfare/minimum 3-night package. Off-strip/downtown (except for Golden Nugget and Red Rock) are crashing into the $29-$39 range.

i will admit to being just a bit boyishly impressed by how the fuck you even go about building a 828 m skyscraper,

well, yeah. it's astonishing.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OvonoKii_ds/S0XZ0bp-qHI/AAAAAAAAFDY/p8-U83QW1JA/s1600-h/56553103_4b00755050_b_d.jpg

Sorry for the size, but a picture of the insane Starbucks in this insane building.

Hmmm, didn't work.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OvonoKii_ds/S0XZ0bp-qHI/AAAAAAAAFDY/p8-U83QW1JA/s1600-h/56553103_4b00755050_b_d.jpg

Dispute over the state of The World

The World islands located off the coast of Dubai are eroding and their navigation channels are cloging up with silt, the Dubai World Tribunal heard yesterday.

The allegations were made yesterday by a company hired by the developer of the man-made islands project to ferry goods and people to and from the development.

"The islands are gradually falling back into the sea," said Richard Wilmot-Smith QC of London, who was acting on behalf of Penguin Marine - which has an exclusive contract for all transport of construction materials and staff to and from the islands. The evidence shows "erosion and deterioration of The World islands", he said.

restaurant opens:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110124/lf_nm_life/us_emirates_restaurant/print

http://a323.yahoofs.com/ymg/ept_sports_golf_experts__16/ept_sports_golf_experts-611339024-1297366212.jpg?ymFDdiEDa_9r0rGr

http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/blog/devil_ball_golf/post/Even-with-a-failed-project-Tiger-Woods-banked-i?urn=golf-319655

80-story condo tower on fire

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/emergencies/massive-fire-erupts-at-torch-tower-in-dubai-marina-1.1460107

Faye Dunaway and Richard Chamberlain as yet unaccounted for

So what's fun to do in Dubai other than look at tall buildings? I'll have a free weekend or two there in October.

Srsly is there anything to do? Am going to Kuwait too.

I googled "things to do in Dubai" and I must say the results were pretty disheartening. Apparently there are lots of places to spend money, but nothing to see or do, unless your idea of fun is traveling thousands of miles to hang out in a hermetically-sealed building located in a scorching desert, or else leave the building to go look at the scorching desert.

80-story condo tower on fire

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/emergencies/massive-fire-erupts-at-torch-tower-in-dubai-marina-1.1460107

Faye Dunaway and Richard Chamberlain as yet unaccounted for

― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, February 20, 2015 9:07 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Another one:

http://gawker.com/entire-skyscraper-burning-in-dubai-1750484719

Better videos.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/dubai-skyscraper-hotel-engulfed-in-huge-fire-a6792356.html

Even though it is crazily huge, it's localised enough at the minute that there is power still in the building, hope people can get out of there.