January 5th, 2010 | photography
Curzon from Coming Anarchy took some photos of the opening of the Burj Khalifa, the new top medieval folly in Dubai. The thing about criminal lunatics who live like God’s just keeping their chairs warm is that, well, they do know how to put on a show:
More at the link.
WARREN ELLIS
Ectoplasmosis - 02 Sep 10
This might be cute if it was narrated by any other voice than the one they chose. Enjoy.
Brothers Grim and Grimy [YouTube]
© ECTOPLASMOSIS!, 2010. | Permalink | No comments yet | Add to del.icio.us | digg it | reddit it
John Robb - 02 Sep 10
Some very random items of interest:
Jean Snow - 02 Sep 10
Yes, it’s already time for a new edition of PauseTalk (Vol. 44), set to happen this coming Monday (September 6) at Cafe Pause, with the regular start time of 20:00 — as always, the cafe is reserved for the event from 19:30, so feel free to come early. Although the SNOW Magazine Cafe event ended this past Monday, I’ll bring out the participating magazines again for anyone who didn’t have a chance to browse through them.
Also, there was some sort of error when I created the Facebook event page, and so this is the correct one (if you receive a message about cancellation, that’s for the extra page it created).
Brian Wood - 01 Sep 10
Brian Wood - 01 Sep 10
French-language edition of LOCAL, published by Delcourt, out this week. I was too excited to wait for comps, so I ordered a copy from Amazon.fr
Coilhouse - 01 Sep 10
I’m kind of disappointed it didn’t launch itself (or anything else) into space (yet.)
Though I suppose the criminal lunatics themselves are sinister enough.
I love technology but I just found the whole thing depressing.
Plus – we paid for it.
Some unnerving facts about the building here: http://io9.com/5439337/the-worlds-tallest-building-is-open-for-business-today/gallery/
I can’t help wondering what it will look like with five or ten decades’ of exposure to 45*C and regular abrasive sand and dust storms – not to mention what happens if the local economy turns out not to have a long-term use for the thing. Since steel-framed construction was invented in the late 19th century, to the best of my knowledge no society with really tall buildings has ever gone bad in a big way. The Sarajevo Hilton is pretty much the poster-child for derelict hi-rise apoco-porn. Thing is, when steel and concrete is abandoned, it doesn’t just fall down leaving only a few humps bumps and walls around the fields made of funny-coloured rock. What they /do/ leave remains to be seen.
PS be sure to catch the horrifyingly vertiginous cellphone footage from the top of the spire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWVLzVhnYE0
I’m imagining this as a tempting target for another airline suicide terrorist.
[...] Warren Ellis » Coming Anarchy. Tagged as: Burj Khalifa, construction, Dubai, economy, madness, opening, [...]
[...] over at ComingAnarchy.com (and via top writer Warren Ellis) took some great pictures of the opening [...]