[RSFB]

It seems they're also one of the least peak-oil prepared places. Is there a top list for that?

[Bytesmiths]

It's probably the ultimate bragging rights for a ski vacation.

[Micki]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DoomWarrior', 'P')ure madness.

[Maddog78]

Bwahahaaaa, that site is awesome.

Dio - Holy Diver is a great album.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Windmills', 'I') find the US slave labor program a bit repulsive, too. Although I think we call them "illegal immigrants" instead of wage slaves.

[seldom_seen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Windmills', 'I') find the US slave labor program a bit repulsive, too. Although I think we call them "illegal immigrants" instead of wage slaves.

[smallpoxgirl]

Yeah. Kinda belies the story that the American crash is all about mortgage shenanigans. If anyone was wondering why we're suddenly broke, that's why. We sent all our money to Dubai.

[Keith_McClary]

Saudi, Kuwait, Dubai and the other gulf states are US protectorates.

They would all have evolved into modern states if the US had not propped up these anacronistic regimes.

The Bush family and other US ruling classes seem to be happy with these regimes.

[Sixstrings]

For some reason, I'm reminded of my trip to Vegas.. being awed and dazzled by all the glitz. And then I realized I was getting heat exhaustion (silly me, I'd WALKED in August from one hotel to another on the Strip).

I forget which hotel it was, but was one of the big ones. It was a MAJOR project to locate a simple drinking fountain. I had to get directions several times, and it seemed like I walking through a whole mall searching for a drinking fountain. There were no fountains outside the restrooms like one expects in public places.

When I finally located it, the drinking fountain was one tiny little thing hidden in a corner, lol. It was so small I couldn't fit my water bottle under the nozzle to fill up. The insanity of that will always stick with me.. a desert full of neon, marble, and Venetian Canals -- but no drinking fountains!

Having said that, I must admit Vegas was the best week long vacation I've ever had. I have a soft spot for a city that knows it's fake, and revels in it. Cookie cutter Floridian suburbs with Italian names, taking themselves oh-so-seriously.. that's what rubs me the wrong way.

[eXpat]

I see that you have found another dead canary...

[eXpat]

Dubai Speculators Quit as Lending Drought Bursts Desert Bubble
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')ec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The classified ads in Dubai read like an obituary for a real-estate market that until a few months ago seemed immune from the global credit crisis.

A Turkish investor, who identified himself as Sebat, took out 10 bright yellow ads in the Nov. 25 edition of Gulf News, the United Arab Emirates’ biggest newspaper, with the headline: “DIRECT FROM OWNER DISTRESS SALE!!!” Sebat said he used to be able to buy four or five properties at a time and sell them the next day for a profit of as much as 5 percent.

“There is panic in the market,” said Sebat, 52, who wouldn’t give his full name because he’s juggling 60 properties.

The property bubble in the desert emirate, home to the world’s tallest building, most expensive hotel suite and largest manmade islands, is bursting as scarce credit and slumping oil prices have international investors scurrying to dump assets. That may shatter Dubai’s goal of creating a sustainable economy by building the Persian Gulf hub for finance and tourism, forcing it to depend on oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi for financing.

“Dubai is more precarious than it has ever been,” said Christopher Davidson, author of “Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success” (2008, Columbia University Press). “If the property industry collapses in Dubai, it will be finished. Dubai’s relative autonomy will come to an abrupt end.”

[InToWishin]

Indication that there's no real place to invest in?
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')u]Chill out, you beautiful people, the Versace beach is refrigerated by Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor:

Versace, the renowned fashion house, is to create the world’s first refrigerated beach so that hotel guests can walk comfortably across the sand on scorching days.

The beach will be next to the the new Palazzo Versace hotel which is being built in Dubai where summer temperatures average 40C and can reach 50C.

The beach will have a network of pipes beneath the sand containing a coolant that will absorb heat from the surface.

The swimming pool will be refrigerated and there are also proposals to install giant blowers to waft a gentle breeze over the beach.

...skip...

Versace's plans have shocked environmentalists. Rachel Noble, the campaigns officer at Tourism Concern, which promotes sustainable tourism, said that the carbon generated by such projects would contribute to climate change, whose worst effects would be felt by the poor.

“Dubai is like a bubble world where the things that are worrying the rest of the world, like climate change, are simply ignored so that people can continue their destructive lifestyles,” she said.
Aided by cheap oil and gas, Middle Eastern nations have poured enormous resources into controlling temperature. About 60% of Dubai’s huge power bill is for air-conditioning; each person living there has a carbon footprint of more than 44 tons of CO2 a year.

[InToWishin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('InToWishin', 'M')iddle East "aided by cheap oil and gas"? How does that work?

[Ferretlover]

Check your PMs, InToWishin.

[frankthetank]

They could be using that energy to make wind generators, nuclear power plant parts, efficient engines...but no... they use it to cool a beach.

At least i don't live in a desert that can't support life without energy...

[Maddog78]

Tallest building halted


$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')UBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The developer of a skyscraper set to soar two-thirds of a mile above Dubai said Wednesday it’s halting work on the project for a year as the boomtown grapples with the financial crisis.

Nakheel’s decision to shelve the landmark development — which it unveiled only in October — came as a leading credit rating firm warned that falling real estate prices leave the outlook for the country’s banking sector looking negative.

The moves are the latest signs that tough economic realities are quickly catching up with this ambitious, fast-growing city.

A report a day earlier showed home values in the emirate tumbled 8 percent in the last three months from the previous quarter, marking what analysts say is the first such decline in years.

The skyscraper — billed as at least two-thirds of a mile tall, or the height of more than three of New York’s Chrysler Buildings stacked on top of one another — was designed to top a rival’s nearly complete tower that will be the world’s highest.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')UBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The developer of a skyscraper set to soar two-thirds of a mile above Dubai said Wednesday it’s halting work on the project for a year as the boomtown grapples with the financial crisis.

[bratticus]

It's all about having a lot of money now and a short future.

[flash width=425 height=344]http://www.youtube.com/v/LQ-3rikUQ34[/flash]

[bratticus]

http://www.palazzoversace.ae/