No postings here for a few days, thought I'd throw this in...

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

[link|http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2162249,00.html|http://www.timesonli...3-2162249,00.html]

[...]

"Officially, the design of the compound is supposed to be a secret, but you cannot hide the giant construction cranes and the concrete contours of the 21 buildings that are taking shape. Looming over the skyline, the embassy has the distinction of being the only big US building project in Iraq that is on time and within budget.

In a week when Washington revealed a startling list of missed deadlines and overspending on building projects, Congress was told that the bill for the embassy was $592 million (\ufffd312 million).

The heavily guarded 42-hectare (104-acre) site \ufffd which will have a 15ft thick perimeter wall \ufffd has hundreds of workers swarming on scaffolding."

[...]

What follows (in the article) are some projects that aren't quite on schedule.