Man-Made Islands Set To Open

[Judge Smails]

<p>Why aren't we doing cool shit like this?&nbsp; Remember the Space Race during the Cold War when we were falling over ourselves to beat the Russians to the moon?&nbsp; How come we're now letting the Arabs beat us in the architectural fields like the world's tallest building and now this?&nbsp; We can't even get it together to build a decent levee around New Orleans.</p><p class="inside-copy"><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2006-08-07-dubai-palm_x.htm" target="_self">The Palm Jumeirah, a 12-square-mile island group, is part of what's billed as the largest land-reclamation project in the world, the product of five years of brute hauling of millions of tons of Persian Gulf sand and quarried rock.</a></p><p class="inside-copy" align="center"><strong>*****</strong></p><p class="inside-copy"><strong>When fully complete by 2010, the Palm Jumeirah will be an offshore city, with some 60,000 residents and at least 50,000 workers in 32 hotels and dozens of shops and attractions, Nakheel said.</strong></p><p class="inside-copy" align="center"><strong>*****</strong></p><p class="inside-copy"><strong>The $14 billion project is a key part of this booming city's ambitions to rival Singapore and Hong Kong as a business hub, and surpass Las Vegas as a leisure capital.</strong></p><p class="inside-copy"><img src="http://images.google.com/url?q=http://www.dubai-hotels-direct.com/images/generic/palm-jumeirah-dubai.jpg" border="0" /><img height="272" src="http://www.imakinaria.com/archives/palm_jumeirah.jpg" width="395" border="0" /></p><p class="inside-copy">&nbsp;</p><p class="inside-copy"><img src="http://www.hotelsmag.com/archives/2006/04/images/palm-jumeirah.jpg" border="0" />&nbsp;The Trump International Hotel</p><p class="inside-copy">&nbsp;</p><p class="inside-copy">&nbsp;</p>

[MadMatt]

<p>I thought exactly the same thing - the USA is being shown up AGAIN!</p><p>A man-made island would rock.&nbsp; I'm surprised Disney hasn't jumped on the bandwagon.</p>

[HBox]

<p><img width="612" height="411" border="0" src="http://www.imakinaria.com/archives/palm_jumeirah.jpg" /><br /></p><p>Tha tlooks like a lovely area surrounding the island.<br /></p>

[SatCam]

http://www.imakinaria.com/archives/palm_jumeirah.jpg

I think I saw this in a science textbook once

[booster11373]

this structure is actually wrecking havoc with the local ecology, its fucking with the tides as it flows down the coast or something.

[tele7]

I just found it on google earth.&nbsp; Search &quot;United Arab Emirates&quot;,&nbsp;and follow the northern most tip along the beach about a 1/3 of the way down.&nbsp; It's a work in progress when the photo was taken, but still pretty cool.&nbsp; There are two being built.

[spoon]

<p>I saw a special on Discovery about this and the shieks are spending outrageous amounts of money on this shit to be ready for the day when the oil runs out.&nbsp; They believe they need to be setup for another type of income generator for the future and are trying to add stability to the area for years to come.&nbsp; At first I thought they were just fucking nuts and wanted to create man-made religious symbols as a statement of power, technology and superiority from here on out.&nbsp; Hell, W couldn't even prep or work out the issues with the NO levees yet, but they can do something like this.&nbsp; Funny enough, most of the companies making money building these projects are from the Western World, the majority from the US.&nbsp; Right now these countries have so much money they don't know what to do with it.&nbsp; </p>

[spoon]

<strong>telecaster7</strong> wrote:<br />I just found it on google earth.&nbsp; Search &quot;United Arab Emirates&quot;,&nbsp;and follow the northern most tip along the beach about a 1/3 of the way down.&nbsp; It's a work in progress when the photo was taken, but still pretty cool.&nbsp; There are two being built. <p>You're right, the second one was just starting due to the success of the first one during the filming of the special I caught.&nbsp; If I remember correctly, it dwarfs the first one of which the pics here are of.&nbsp; It's fucking incredible, but the US is so far behind in infrastructure and technology these days that we are quickly becoming outdated.&nbsp; Sure we won't go third world overnight, but the way we bleed money we sure as hell aren't going to keep on the edge of the tech world.&nbsp; Hell, the country doesn't even promote competition any longer protecting large companies all along the way and really doesn't help fund new technologies and energy sources unless it relates to weapons of war.&nbsp; </p>

[A.J.]

Yeah, I saw them building this when I was in Dubai last Christmas.&nbsp; The other one looks like a map of the world.&nbsp; I think similar projects are going on in Qatar and the King 'Abdallah City in Saudi Arabia will be a smaller version.

[Furtherman]

<p>Looks great!&nbsp; But no booze.&nbsp; No thanks.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Plus, the sea will regain its ground eventually.&nbsp; Can't mess with mother nature.</p>

[A.J.]

There's booze in the hotels and other clubs.

[Furtherman]

Oh.&nbsp; Well then I'm there.&nbsp;