World's tallest building opens in Dubai

[Chairman Ryan]

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_dubai_tallest_building

I gotta admit, it's a pretty amazing structure. Personally I'm a fan of classical architecture and occasionally some art deco, but I do like the style of this building.

I'm rather appalled at the price tag tho.

[Dr. Q]

I remember when they started work on this. I thought they were mad, and this would never see completion. Guess they showed me. Have you seen the man-made islands there? They've got the entire world laid out using islands, and are selling them to investors. I believe Richard Branson has bought one already.

[Chairman Ryan]

Yeah, tho I was reading on some ecology papers that the islands are already starting to wash away and they're having problems keeping them above water.

[Dr. Q]

Really? What a bummer. I kinda liked em

[demonoffides]

Yeah... Sad, really.

[Chairman Ryan]

Yeah, well, I hate to say it, but.... that's what they get for not taking into account environmental issues. It was "let's dump sand in the bay and make little islands!" without thinking about what happens when you build sand castles on the beach...

[Dr. Q]

I watched something on Discovery Channel about Dubai's huge projects, and the islands were mentioned - sort of in passing. They did, however, say that a lot of time was spent planning and running simulations so they wouldn't screw up. Either that was all bs, of they are in dire need of some new simulation software.

[Chairman Ryan]

From what I understand, they hired a bunch of construction engineers and no environmental engineers. Basically it was just bad planning. They didn't put any tidal barriers in place to stop the sand from eroding. And even that wouldn't be enough.

The environmental project I work for handles river-bank stabilization, and we did a big anti-erosion project this fall where we had to install rip-rap - basically huge 3 ton boulders stacked along the river's banks - to keep it from eroding further. The ocean is ten times more powerful; and they're relying on a man-made sandbar to stop it.

[Dr. Q]

I see what you mean. You would think, with all the money dumped into this, they would have been more thorough. So in the outside world - are you some sort of engineer then?

[demonoffides]

Dont worry, they'll dump money (read: landfill) into this (read: the ocean) and fix the problem (read: pollute)

[Chairman Ryan]

Yeah, they'll certainly screw it up by throwing money at it.

And kinda, I work in environmental management and conservation. I do some freelance consulting and work as a site manager for a local non-profit river clean-up group (cleaning up GE's PCB mess).