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Tower of Babel, anyone?

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Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby Twilight » Sun 22 Jul 2007, 08:50:48

Image

BBC Article

The size is all very impressive, but what I love about this photo is the photographer capturing the context so magnificently.

Take a moment to look at the tower, but just scan the surrounding buildings, the older concrete cubes just behind the foreground, and the lay of the land.

It speaks of more than just hubris, just imagine the surrounding desert having such demand placed upon it, once international trade is no longer what it is today. At this stage in its construction, this site must look similar to how it will eventually appear as a stripped ruin in a few decades' time. More eerie than impressive, I think.
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby Tanada » Fri 27 Jul 2007, 07:41:49

Can you imagine a bigger target for fundamentalist terrorists once its complete? As far as that goes it would also be a target for the poor once the economy collapses, no bigger samples of conspicious consumption are likely to be in the mid east!
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To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby TheDude » Fri 27 Jul 2007, 08:50:33

Wonder what floor Haliburton's going to be on.

That's one tall shaft. I'm impressed. Really big column. So massive and firm.
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby Anthrobus » Fri 27 Jul 2007, 17:47:29

is someone called nimrod around there?

imagine the amount of tecnology that is required and that has to be applied permanently just to keep the inhabitants of this structure from starving from thirst, heat, hunger or boredom, hundreds of meters above ground ... in the desert.

Imagine some bad guys just surrounding this thing, cutting the pipes and not letting anyone out. Somehow i can too easily imagine the sniperfire from deserted, smoking ruins of skyscrapers.

At home, we try to avoid the use of any superfluos, energy consuming device, and then to look at this hubris, wow.

Who ist supposed to live there and waste his life shopping and hanging around at the beach? Maybe some newly rich asians. Are there some factories in Dubai or has everything except the sand to be imported?
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby CrudeAwakening » Fri 27 Jul 2007, 18:29:48

It's so reassuring that humanity has such a well-formed sense of priorities.

Modern industrial civilisation may be about to wither, but hey, we can still build enormous phallic white elephants in the desert to mindlessly proclaim our virility in the midst of all that is barren.
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby PenultimateManStanding » Fri 27 Jul 2007, 19:31:34

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('CrudeAwakening', 'I')t's so reassuring that humanity has such a well-formed sense of priorities.

Modern industrial civilisation may be about to wither, but hey, we can still build enormous phallic white elephants in the desert to mindlessly proclaim our virility in the midst of all that is barren.
that's what I was thinking. I'm glad you said it. A big dick offered up to empty skies. Whatever happened to Raphael and the eternal feminine?
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby Zardoz » Fri 27 Jul 2007, 21:26:05

(I posted this in the Energy News forum a few days ago.)

Image
Why, in a couple of years I'm sure the neighborhood will look exactly like this!

Image
800 meters! Give us a break...

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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby dukey » Fri 27 Jul 2007, 22:14:50

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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby lotrfan55345 » Fri 27 Jul 2007, 22:16:45

There are ~50 buildings over 20 stories in Dubai u/c right now :)
Anyway, the Burj is really an engineering and architectural feat.
I don't think it'll collapse within the next 200 years at least... or ever.
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby Zardoz » Sun 29 Jul 2007, 02:34:37

Let's hope what happened in Bangkok doesn't happen in Dubai:

[url=http://www.marketwatch.com/tvradio/player.asp?guid={797E4ADC-F65A-4CE9-BD81-9F4547C03A7F}]The ghost towers of Bangkok[/url]

"Modern ruins", indeed...
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby Tanada » Sun 29 Jul 2007, 08:11:55

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', 'L')et's hope what happened in Bangkok doesn't happen in Dubai:

[url=http://www.marketwatch.com/tvradio/player.asp?guid={797E4ADC-F65A-4CE9-BD81-9F4547C03A7F}]The ghost towers of Bangkok[/url]

"Modern ruins", indeed...


Whatever that is suppossed to be Zardoz, all I get is a blank black screen.
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby Twilight » Sun 29 Jul 2007, 10:45:17

Cool documentary clip.

North Korea has this unfinished skyscraper, I understand it was under construction by Russians and is frozen in time at the moment the Soviet Union collapsed. North Korea never had the capability to complete it.

Whatever course our evolution takes, one thing is for sure, the Earth will not run short of impressive ruins for millennia.
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby Zardoz » Sun 29 Jul 2007, 11:15:18

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', '.')..all I get is a blank black screen.

It's a WSJ video clip about all the unfinished, abandoned high-rises in Bangkok. Anybody else having trouble playing it?
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby OilIsMastery » Sun 29 Jul 2007, 11:23:30

Now that Halliburton is controlled by Al Qaeda we can finally catch a glimpse of Illuminati World Headquarters.
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Bangkok's Ghostly Skyline

Unread postby seahorse » Sun 29 Jul 2007, 11:28:48

Interesting video from WSJ on the ghostly skyline of Bangkok. During the Asian boom, huge buildings were started in Bangkok, but after the Asian financial crisis, they were never finished and now stand as huge, decaying dinosaurs. If you look at the timing at which these buildings were started then abandoned, the late 90s, one could argue this was the "peak" of civilization, which coincided with cheap energy.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/lin ... 1126133172


{merged seahorse's thread with this one - TheTurtle}
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby PeakOiler » Sun 29 Jul 2007, 11:49:08

Wouldn't load for me, but I think it's due to the aol browser.

And we all know what happened to that tower, don't we?
Image
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby HEADER_RACK » Sun 29 Jul 2007, 12:11:18

My favorite is this building
http://www.upcheer.com/images/dubai-ski/
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby Zardoz » Sun 29 Jul 2007, 12:54:36

Okay, now I'm getting scared:

Image Image

No wonder I have such a bad feeling about that thing!
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby Twilight » Sun 29 Jul 2007, 12:58:17

Good find, made me laugh.
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Re: Tower of Babel, anyone?

Unread postby Zardoz » Sun 29 Jul 2007, 13:06:22

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Twilight', '.')..made me laugh.

Yeah, right! Real funny!

"Burj Dubai"? "Barad Dur"?

Halliburton is moving to Dubai!?

Holy shit! What is going on here!?!?
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