Posted on 08/28/2008 8:36:56 AM PDT by Squidpup
The Mayans and Egyptians constructed incredible feats of architecture able to weather the test of time, but they had no idea their pyramids would inspire the shape of the latest carbon-neutral super-structure to hit Dubai. Dubai-based environmental design firm Timelinks recently released some eye-catching renderings of the gigantic eco pyramid - aptly named Ziggurat - with plans for its official unveiling scheduled for the Cityscape Dubai event which runs October 6-9 of this year. The ginormous pyramid will cover 2.3 square kilometers and will be able to sustain a “community” of up to 1 million.
Timelinks claims that their Ziggurat will be capable of running completely off the grid by utilizing steam, wind, and other natural resources. The tightly knit city will also feature a super efficient public transportation system that runs both horizontally and vertically, and plans are being drawn up to utilize both public and private green spaces for agricultural opportunities.
According to the International Institute for the Urban Environment, the technologies incorporated into the Ziggurat project will make it a viable metropolis, and Timlinks has responded by quickly patenting the design and technology developed for the project. A number of European professors will be on hand at CityScape Dubai to explain how the Ziggurat project can be incorporated into grander plans, meaning that it may not be a one-off structure.
Via World Architecture News
Make it green any you’d have The Emerald City of Oz.
Oh, yeah, that looks like a pleasant homey place to live in. Sign me up. /s
I’ll bet this is what the housing for the people who designed the Death Star looks like.
But will it have a dialing device? (Stargate)
It’s a terrorist’s eat dream. One small nuke and kill 1 million people.
Sadly, this sort of lifestyle is the best case scenario for the future, if “conservatives” don’t start to grasp pretty soon that population growth is not a good thing. Yes, we can squash more people onto the planet, but you can forget about kids growing up in freestanding single-family homes with some land around them that’s actually controlled by the free citizens who live there. Instead, highly-efficient, densely-packed living arrangements, which are invariably highly socialistic in political organization and regulation, will increasingly become the norm.
- code named "Tower of Babel"
Exactly.
Have they not learned anything from the disasters called public housing projects in the US?
Too many people too close, anonymity and sterility leads to incredible crime.
But I guess these people will all be employed. Maybe that will make a difference.
More of that ‘transfer of wealth’. Except, where are they buying the materials and expertise to build the thing? And where will they get all the things these 1 million residents will need to live their life of luxury? Coould it be that the wealth is going to continue to circulate and make its way right back home? Don’t get me wrong, I would love to be energy independent for other reasons, but this ‘transfer of wealth’ argument makes me grind my teeth. This is a monument to that fallacy.
Really exciting. If we still had our oil money, we’d be building innovative buildings too.
Interesting they are using alternative energy when they have so much oil.
I watched a crew putting in a new pier, lots of guys, lots of heavy equipment and noise, no fumes. I went over and asked why not. They were running their equipment on biodiesel, which, the guy told me, would make OK fish food if they had a spill. Big construction guy, he seemed really happy about that.
Drill America, use biodiesel to run the equipment. Is that a compromise or what?
Depends on what you mean by population growth.
Population growth in western democracies is way down.
It is very high in third-world countries where the western democracies have zero input or control.
Our oil money is building monstrous monuments on foreign sand.
Here's a question: Will the ziggurats grow their own food?
It’s going to be manufactured on the moon?
Actually, conservatives realize quite well that implementing free governments and a prosperous economy inevitably results in LESS population growth. The only places that are currently having large population increases are poor, uneducated, authoritarian nations.
Here's a hint---the Communist Chinese model is NOT one we want to emulate.
LAZARUS LONG
I think you must have just finished reading the “Population Bomb”. I hear it was a bestseller in 1968. For some reason its predictions never came true.
Once nations reach a certain level of prosperity, population growth seems to start to shrink. This introduces a totally different problem — such as the Japanese are now facing where they do not procreate enough to replace their population.
It amazes me that someone whose tagline is “Government Shrinker” would even go there.
Yeah, yeah, but here’s the real question: will they implement the heretofore unknown technology in Arabia—indoor plumbing?
Don’t be surprised if this thing is actually built...
Dubai is home to the (soon to be completed) world’s tallest building...
Dubai is also home to what might be considered engineering marvels; the man made palm tree islands, and the man made world islands...
There is a third set of man made islands under construction; the size and shape of which escapes me...
I think they are building the world’s largest indoor mall...
A rail system is under construction...
A huge airport is under construction, possibly the world’s largest...
Can’t forget about the indoor ski run and winter playland...
Oil revenues have been very good to the Emir and good for the emirates...
Many currencies are strong against the dirham, especially the euro...
It’s the new Riviera for the rich and famous (and the not so rich and famous)...
Labor (indentured servitude/slavery) provides one of key engines for the explosive growth...
National pride/Muslim pride is another major engine...
And again, the oil revenue in that region of the world is staggering, providing investors at every opportunity...
Yes, this complex will be built, and in fact, it will be built sooner rather than later...
This is no different than an Apartment building, and while they say nothing of the scale of this building (other than its supposed maximum occupancy) I would be willing to wager that none of the living spaces inside this building would be smaller than your average city apartment. More than likely, there will be much larger and more luxurious spaces near the top of the complex.
Hmmm, looks like the city in Logan’s Run!
There is very little crime in the Emirates. It’s treated the way America treated crime 60 years ago.
Why is Dubai, home of 10% of the world’s oil supply, building an alternative energy housing complex?
But what the hey, better they use the money to build things than to fund terrorism. For as long as the ME keeps getting our oil money (which I hope won’t be real long but we have incomepetent people in Congress...), I say build all the giant towers you want. That means less money that will be going to madrassas in Pakistan or someplace like that.
Indoor plumbing; yes. With options...
Water vs toilet paper.
Actually, the ruling Emir (of Dubai) is somewhat of a forward thinker...
I know, I know, it boggles the mind...
Of course, this came to mind, for some inexplicable reason (the look, not any deeper meaning):
How ‘bout a motorized left hand that reaches out from the toilet?
I think the third set of man-made islands is supposed to depict the solar system, with the islands in the shape of all the planets, but I might be remembering wrong.
They also built the world’s largest amusement park, creatively named “DubaiLand”; 3 billion square feet. Inside it is the Al-Sahra resort, soon to be the largest entertainment tourist destination on the planet. They seem to have this thing with building the “world’s largest” this and that.
I think you are right about the square footage comparisonsw and the state of luxury regarding the individual units...
The wealthy and investors of various wealth stratas, will flock to this project...
Plus the Euro greenies/weenies will come on board...
Come on now, let’s don’t get too carried away with this love fest... ;o)
Remember, with the huge amount of money that it takes, to build these kind of projects, lots more of it, finds it’s way into the hills and hollers of nations with names ending with s-t-a-n...
I know what you mean though...
I knew there were other ‘world’s largest’ in Dubai, but they escaped my memory...
What with having the means, and the will, game on...
Now, having said that, I think the Muslim pride thing is certainly at the fore...
Hey, I don’t blame them, they’ve got some ground to make up...
Very funny; with a certain kernel of truth contained within your suggestion...
Anything to get their bacteria coated hand away from their bacteria coated (you know what)...
Crowded societies in which economic/educational development is being outstripped by population growth are breeding grounds for socialism and its close cousin totalitarianism. The repressive Chinese political system was the natural outgrowth of a fast-growing population unable to feed itself, much less mount an offensive against a totalitarian political system.
Unintentionally, the Chinese government’s draconian population control program has laid the foundation for the demise of totalitarian government. As a larger percentage of the slower-growing population has many years of adulthood with no children, and later on only one little mouth to feed, they have time and energy and inclination to focus on things like personal freedom, free enterprise, and organizing opposition to government oppression — and they are doing it in a big way. When people are hungry and have lots of little mouths to feed, they don’t care about much of anything but getting food for today and tomorrow, and are desperate to believe the claims of the socialists/communist/totalitarian political groups that supporting these groups will lead to a better life for the common people.
What's your recommendation, GS?
As if there wasn’t already a glut of unsold real eastate in Dubai....
The Tiger Woods Dubai project consists of a golfcourse/clubhouse, hotel, and luxury homes overlooking on the fairways. Press release this week that the homes part of the project has been “delayed” due to a lack of available building materials. But whats really going on is the projections of a massive over supply of high-end homes and condos in Dubai in 2009 are starting to spook developers and projects are starting to get scaled back.
Thousands of homes are supposed to be built on the palm islands as well.
http://www.tigerwoodsdubai.com/
To also put a a project like this in perspective, about 7 other pro golfers have similar golf courses planned or already being built in Dubai.
Do a keyword search on “Dubai” - I’ve posted a number of other stories on many of these projects you mention.
Start with the simple step of individuals advocating lower birth rates in countries that have high birth rates, and among people whose standard of living is such that they are looking to the government or aid agencies (or crime) to make ends meet. It would be a very good sign if more FReepers would react to stories about the miserable living conditions of people in (and fleeing from) economically and politically screwed up countries by noting that the large numbers of children most of them have are a big part of the problem. If you can’t feed yourself, you have no business bringing a child into the world until your circumstances have substantially improved. If you already have 2 children you can’t feed, or protect from raping pillaging “guerrillas”, you certainly have no business having 8 more. Note that most homicide bombers come from large families, and that many of them got their heads twisted at madrassahs, where their penniless illiterate parents sent them because it was only place they knew of that their son could learn to read and write. The terrorist leaders LOVE to see families popping out baby after baby that the parents can’t afford to raise. Yet sadly, many FReepers’ reaction to this breeding-like-feral-cats is to suggest that we ought to do the same to keep pace with them!
I was in Dubai this previous March. The place is hotter than hell the entire year, the only color is various shades of sand, oh yeah, it's dusty.
It's basically the Las Vegas of the ME. All the workers came from another country. I think the only UAE citizens I saw worked at the airport.
I am actually a little afraid to ask what your solution to the problem is. Telling people how and when to reproduce would seem antithetical to any libertarian or conservative.
Because at some point, Governmental Force would seem to enter the picture.
The entire United Arab Emirates (including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and others) produces 3.5% of the world's oil and holds 7.3% of the world's oil reserves. Of course each individual city-state is somewhat less.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/RecentTotalOilSupplyBarrelsperDay.xls
A lot of "conservatives" around here seem to have no problem telling people they should have more children without delay. Under tyrannical governments, governmental force has been used in both directions re reproduction -- see coerced child-bearing in Romania under Ceaucescu and and coerced non-child-bearing in Communist China. Tyrannical governments aren't inherently supportive of reducing birth rates; they coerce whatever birth policies happen serve the leaders' purposes at the moment. Hitler was fond of showering "Aryan" women with awards and privileges for producing plenty of little Aryan babies to staff his "Glorious Fatherland".
Well I wasn’t asking about “conservatives” who advocate having more children. They are not holding a gun to anyone’s head either. If people are persuaded by an argument to have more children, that is their business. They are adults, and we live in a relatively free society. If you care to counsel them against it, and they listen to you then that’s their business too.
That’s what a free exchange of ideas is all about, and something that we still have in this country fortunately.
My question really was about what solutions you may have to the problems you identified of poor people having too many children in non-free or potentially terrorist producing states. And what we, as conservatives could do about it. I do not see many options for those of us in this country to stem that tide in a moral (or even feasible) way.
I would say that the dangers you point out do not apply to this country however. As rebuttals to the “Population Bomb” point out (in particular, see “Ultimate Resource”) there really isn’t a population problem wrt resources. In fact, even the UN expects our global population to drop by 2040.
I got that from a Forbes article on the world’s richest royals, in which they state Abu Dhabi had 10%...looks like they’re wrong then!
Thanks....
The UAE and Dubia in particular are well on the way to becoming a commerce business center and making oil production secondary to their economy.
A big thing conservatives can do about it is to stop pretending the rapid birth rates in underdeveloped countries (and welfare-dependent segments of our own society) aren’t a huge problem. I almost never see that pointed out here, and frequently see people claiming it’s NOT a problem. Unfortunately, the latter attitude translates into a political force which helps perpetuate the practice of the US foreign aid programs (and domestic welfare programs) having very little focus on cutting birth rates. It’s always “send more food”, “send more medicine”, “send more teachers” — never an urgent call to focus on reducing the non-stop increase in the number of people who don’t have enough food/medicine/education.
When we’re handing out these goodies, priority should go to people who have delayed and limited childbearing. Then they become social models for an improved standard of living being connected with fewer children. We don’t have nearly enough resources to feed/treat/educate all the needy people in third world countries, so we might as well make the tough choices in a way that actually helps mitigate the long term problem. As an example, if someone wants free health care for themselves and their 3 children who have HIV, we should demand that they be sterilized first — we shouldn’t be providing that care while the adults go merrily along churning out more HIV-infected babies, and that’s exactly what we’re doing now.
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