The Filthy-Rich (at play..) in Dubai

Post #318,186 by Ashton 12/6/09 2:59:06 AM Reply	The Filthy-Rich (at play..) in Dubai Courtesy of Wait.. Wait.. Don't tell me -- NPR. It's a circus out there, still. THESE are the folk who claim that their tax rate is onerous at Oh.. ~ 30%, depending upon how much is stashed off-shore: Exhibit 1: A beach-front for a sumptuous hotel (whose motto includes, ..for the filthy rich) which is refrigerated via coils under the sand ... lest these expensive feet should experience the pain of unprotected desert-sand. Exhibit 2: The soon to be completed -??- TallestBuildinginnaWorldÂ -- to be built on sand -- aka WhatPossiblyCouldGoWrong here? Exhibit 3: The 'special venue within same' for ONLY the aforementioned Filthy Rich (a phrase actually used in their advertising.) (It seems that one of the bailed-out BankCorps has issued suggestions to their office-party planners: keep it to "12 or under" revellers (though accompanying bodyguards masseueses, valets et al -- don't count as people.)) Some things are so old they're New again -- Let's restore the tax rates of The Eisenhower Years (when not a single CIEIO jumped from a tall building, despondent over the penurious 15x - 30x of normal salaries paid to proles I see.. I see.. certain symbols cut-out from Target stores' shopping bags and surreptitiously affixed to the backs of the Armani (suits and their Suits) -- as a familiar icon suggesting ... Aim Well and Often. Word for the Day: obloquy
Post #318,187 by folkert 12/6/09 8:15:27 AM Reply	You forgot... SKI Dubai! http://www.skidxb.com/ 22,500m² covered with real snow all year round Â (equivalent to 3 football fields) Temperature maintained at a comfortable -1º to -2º 85 meters high (approximately 25 stories) and 80 meters wide 5 different runs of varying difficulty and length, longest run of 400 meters Full capacity of 1500 guests Freestyle zone Corporate and group bookings 3,000m² Snow Park with a snow cavern Quad chairlift, tow lift and flying carpets Mountain resort theme Rental of quality equipment and clothing included in the ticket price Qualified professional instructors State of the art ticketing system Changing areas with locker rental Private kids party rooms Exclusive retail shop Â Snow Pro St Moritz Café and Avalanche Cafe From the FAQ: Q: How does it stay cold in Ski Dubai? A: Our facility is specially designed as a massive cold box. The walls have numerous levels of insulation and the roof is 5 metres higher than the ceiling, providing very efficient insulation. This makes Ski Dubai one of the best refrigerators in the world! We have 23 blast coolers (air conditioner type machines) that chill the air and maintain a temperature of -1c during operating hours. There are also kilometres of glycol tubing running through the floor (similar to the back of your refrigerator) that chill the snow, keeping the base of the snow solid, 30 tonnes of fresh snow is made daily. You want an Alpine Ski vacation? NO WAY! True SKI Nuts (ummm yeah) say the snow pack on Ski Dubai is better than the Alps, due to humidity and temperature controls amd method, the snow is PERFECTLY MADE! They use "hyper cooled" water and inject miniscule ice Crystal in the air at the same time the water is misted into the air. Causing full fledged snow flakes.
Post #318,192 by Ashton 12/6/09 2:25:15 PM Reply	I'm just . . . . . whelmed.. Skied during a couple weeks in the French Alps (visiting a friend with a gig there, so got to share a room.) Rank amateur, but able to navigate a bit of the intermediate section, etc. Thought I'd captured the flavour of this obsession (but I hear that, "skiing is going downhill these days?") -- but THIS is beyond obsession and the conspicuous public burning of $100 bills. Because you CAN (and have no imagination abour what-Else you might have done instead.) Now as to the Carbon Footprint: My analysis of BTU/plutocrat -- overall, including cost of the construction ÷ est.number of players: Maybe it's as if each one of these pampered (and some, Pampered) pusillanimous popinjays -- drives a Hummer, everywhere. Probably also one used just inside the house (in Texas, say.) Am I right, sir? Am I right? Extra Brownie points for source of that query, and the circumstances of its utterance ...
Post #318,214 by folkert 12/6/09 11:50:41 PM 12/6/09 11:53:22 PM Reply	Re: I'm just . . . . . whelmed.. The response from Abraham Nathan: I half believe you are. So... what do I get? 1922 or 1931? Edited by folkert Dec. 6, 2009, 11:53:22 PM EST Expand All History
Post #318,277 by Ashton 12/8/09 4:15:05 AM Reply	Sorry.. The 39 Steps ..as Mr. Memory lies dying on the stage.
Post #318,189 by boxley 12/6/09 1:32:01 PM Reply	yabbut you cant have a heinie on the beach, either of them
Post #318,196 by dmcarls 12/6/09 4:38:01 PM Reply	Re: The Filthy-Rich (at play..) in Dubai And, over in Iraq, we're doing a bit of our own nation building: http://www.army.mil/...i-army/index.html http://i.imgur.com/7KqxY.jpg http://i.imgur.com/QRKm9.jpg http://i.imgur.com/gvdwa.jpg No cash for clunkers there!
Post #318,220 by Ashton 12/7/09 5:34:34 AM Reply	A fine complement to today's NPR redux of I.F. Stone ... and our Perpetual War fetish (when the Barons ran out of railroads and steel mills to build 'Equity') -- he had the outcome in Vietnam 1 pegged from early-on, having actually read and comprehended History. Surely he'd have our latest Vietnams as readily -- is it 2 or 3? depending upon combining the Iraq quagmire with the Afghan / or treating as separate follies in the catalogue. (Most readers here will never have heard of the Scottsboro Boys; when one of these sought him out to do a report on the actual story: Izzy instead set him up to author a book, feeling that it was best told by one of the victims. Good book, Scottsboro Boy -- a stirring tale of Land of the Free mythology vs. actuality. We can ponder the depth of our insouciance as the Public Option to the Giant Perpetual Insurance Cartel joins the War-Medical-Industrial complex, 'insuring' that no challenge to their hegemony shall ever succeed / while Finance's ongoing Ponzi schemes are reinstated as-if Nothing at All happened to the Giant Pool of Money. Just a few months back, wasn't it? Today the surreal is commonplace. Tomorrow? As the SF Chronicle has just doubled its rates, perhaps I won't miss reading the daily details of the Great Unwinding into formal Banana Republic status. Will it be Apples $5 -- Brother Can You Spare a C-note?, this time? 'Flat stale and unprofitable' (Lord Peter Wimsey) -- is the effect of running the details on so much of what passes for 'news'; I do begin to see the wisdom of simply ignoring the blab-machines collectively ... for the duration. When you've seen One, Two, thirteen train wrecks -
Post #318,229 by dmcarls 12/7/09 9:51:52 AM Reply	Daniel Burnham redux? When Burnham said "make no little plans", I don't think he meant this: [...] "The property forms part of the Dubai Waterfront project, where Nakheel plans to build a city twice the size of Hong Kong Island." [...] Now, Hong Kong is about 426 square miles of land mass. Twice the size? The Dubai project is currently on hold. http://www.bloomberg...dIBJ2dRs4jo&pos=5

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