Babeled

Over the past week or so, I recently learned that there are plans in place to build an architectural masterpiece in Dubai. Apparently there has been talk surrounding this building for over a year and now after recently presenting the estimated construction cost to the United Arab Emirates. It is looking more and more like these wind powered rotating apartment skyscrapers will be built in Dubai and Moscow. David Fisher, Architect of Dynamic Architecture, estimates that construction of the Dynamic Tower in Dubai will be completed by 2010. There are also talks to eventually construct these buildings in New York and London. Nevertheless, the Dubai project is slated to be the first one of its kind. Already they are advertising that you can reserve an apartment in this rotating tower.

It will also be a stunning landmark for the city, catching the sun as it quietly twists like a monolithic Rubik’s cube.

How It Works?

Construction begins with a concrete central core, containing the plumbing, the elevators, and other utilities. Then each apartment unit, which was pre-fabricated in various locations around the world, is shipped to Dubai and added to the concrete tower. Architect Fisher does this to cut down on construction costs and to make the actual construction more efficient. The Dubai Tower is planned to be 80-stories tall (1,380 feet) and house 200 apartments that are in a constant rotating motion around the central core. In between each floor unit there will be a horizontal wind turbine. There are slated to be at least 79 wind turbines in between the units, each producing an abundance of energy; enough to supply the entire tower and help out the surrounding neighborhood. Also, Dynamic Architecture has plans to place photovoltaic cells on each apartments roof, which will assist in powering the building through solar power. Due to the dynamic motion of each unit, every roof will ultimately see sunlight and this will only add to the self-sufficiency of the skyscraper. You might ask yourself, “Self, is this innovative building safe from natural disasters, like earthquakes?” Well, apparently it is.

Dynamic Architecture, the company building these structures, says that they’re actually safer from earthquakes than normal skyscrapers because each unit is independent and flexibly moves with the wind.

There is one downside though. While the few owners of an entire floor will be able to control the floors movement and pick their view, those that own individual units will be moved through the architects laptop. Thus most of the rotating floors will be controlled by the architect. Somehow this makes me uncomfortable.

What Are the Apartments Like?

As I said before there will be 200 total units attached to the Dynamic Tower. According to Dynamic Architecture, the first 20 floors will be offices, floors 21-35 will be a luxury hotel, and floors 36-70 will be residential villas. The last 10 floors will be luxury villas, which will no doubt host the wealthiest kings and lords.

Apartments will range in size from 124 square meters (1,330 square feet), to Villas of 1,200 square meters (12,900 square feet) complete with a parking space inside the apartment.

You read right, apartments will also be able to house a parking spot. This means that residents will be able to drive their vehicles into the elevator running up and down the central core.

Cost, Finance, & Science

While I am by no means a financial analyst nor an engineer, I thought it would only be proper for me to at least introduce the figures that have been thrown around in regards to the construction and the energy production of the Dynamic Tower. The initial cost is estimated at $700 million. Fisher’s plan to have the apartments pre-fabricated off-site and then shipped to Dubai to be added to the tower is estimated to save at least 10% of normal construction costs. Additionally, each apartment’s cost will range from about $3.7 million to $36 million (about $3000 per square foot).

On the other side of the coin, the tower is expected to produce $7 million of surplus energy per year marking its long-term profitability. According to inventorspot.com and gizmag.com, the wind turbines in between each floor are expected to collectively produce 1,200,000 kilowatts per year. With each turbine producing 300 kWh over the year and with the average family consuming 24,000 kWh annually, there should be a giant amount of surplus energy that can be pumped back into the city’s grid.

My Thoughts

Without a doubt, the undertaking to construct this rotating tower is an architectural marvel. Upon its completion it will most likely become the 10th Wonder of the World. It will definitely be an architectural feat that rivals the building of the Great Pyramids, relatively speaking of course. The future is here and it seems as though Dubai is playing host to all creative innovation and technology.

. . . each floor rotates independently at different speeds, resulting in a unique and ever evolving structure that introduces a fourth dimension to architecture, Time.

While I am by no means an avid supporter of wind power or solar power, as I think nuclear is the best way to produce energy, I can’t help but think that this tower is a really cool technological achievement. I mean this is the stuff that Sci-Fi books and movies is all about. Perhaps Dubai will be the first futuristic city in the world, kind of like machine city, Zero-One, from the Matrix. Maybe one day, Dubai will serve as the capital to the world. Maybe it will be the home of the future space federation. Regardless of political or financial motives, Dubai is quickly bringing the future to the present.

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Singularly hurtling toward the red orb hanging in the distance, the outline of the ship’s hull emits a small flash as it approaches. Soon, the ship will bring itself into orbit around the target planet, not our closest interplanetary neighbor, but the most suitable for the task at hand. Mars has long captivated those who gazed at the heavens from our small blue sanctuary home planet. It is now that the long-held dream of colonizing another world is about to be brought to fruition through the labors of men and women who will be long remembered, regardless of their actual success at this mission.

The early part of the twenty-first century gave rise to a revitalization in interest and intrigue for space exploration. From this renaissance, an international port and scientific research center was constructed on the surface of the Moon. This port was to be the development and launching site for what was perceived to be the next great frontier to be explored by mankind. Several manned scouting missions were launched to Mars from the Moon, only one was successful. The others all failed from technical or psychological malfunctions prior to entering orbit around Mars.

One successful journey was enough to convince the collective conscience that a colony could be achieved, and the controversial, yet coveted, technology to terraform Mars was feasible. Mankind would soon colonize another world. The tenacity of the human mind and spirit was broken by one, simple realization brought about by the successful landing of this vessel with such auspicious goals as producing a breathable atmosphere for future generations of humans to walk freely on the surface of Mars.

The main difference between the colonizing ship and the scouting mission was scope of work. The colonizing crew was far more numerous with many more scientific and technological specialties. There was far more equipment with the colonizing mission. Then, there was the matter of the landing site. The one successful scouting mission landed in Utopia Planitia, a place that is in the northern hemisphere of the Mars, which happens to be mostly flat plains. When the colonizing ship landed, the coincidence that it should happen to be on the exact opposite side of the planet in the Argyre Planitia was not noticed at the time.

The theory was that the colonizing ship should land in the northern hemisphere where the atmospheric pressure that is being generated by the terraforming will occur the earliest. If the ship was to land in the southern hemisphere, the highlands of Mars, then the effects of the terraforming would be less measurable than at the lower altitudes, the principle being the same as on Earth that the higher the altitude the lower the atmospheric pressure. Once the colonizing crew realized that their landing site was far from where they had anticipated, the mission was now to scout the area and attempt the colonization process, if conditions seemed reasonable.

As it were, the Argyre Planitia is a far more interesting place to land than Utopia Planitia. The incomprehensibly enormous impact craters, delving several miles deep into the surrounding mountains and plains, resemble lake beds with flowing rivers spiraling outward from it’s rocky shores. They explored the region until a curious object was discovered: a human tooth. As there were supposed to have never been any humans located in this region of the planet, all were baffled by the discovery until the great leap was made. Mars is the desert we already left behind, and Earth was the colony of those who lived on Mars. It took this epiphany for human culture to understand that the expand and conquer technique is nothing new, and we’ve done it before only to forget our past indiscretions and make the same mistakes again.

Maunder crater Image used in this post courtesy of Flickr user regulus2007.

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In roughly five years we will either all be witness to the most mind-blowing event in recorded history, or we’ll just be going to sleep excited to have Tuesday off for Christmas. If it’s the latter, well I might just take Monday off and have a four-day weekend…now that’s worth looking foward to!

But if, just if, all the predictions are true, December 12th, 2012 will be a very fascinating day. I won’t go into excessive details, but the gist of it is that the Mayan Calendar, after 5,126 years, comes to an end on this date. The calendar is cyclical in nature, and the Mayans believed that the end of each cycle would usher in a new form of creation via a complete destruction of the old order.

This date might have slipped under the radar if it wasn’t for the efforts of apocalyptic-obsessed individuals around the world who are always itching for proof that the world is finally coming to an end. Keep in mind, there is a huge track record of apocalyptic prophecies getting proven wrong by the passing of the foreseen date.

The following is a History Channel special about 12.21.2012. It is one of the few sources on the internet that provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of this topic:

Video : 2012 : 1

Video : 2012 : 2

Image Used in this Post

Earthrise courtesy of Princeton University.

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“Luke I am your father” has got to be the single greatest twist of fate I have ever witnessed in a movie. Although the phrase has long since become cliché, in its time, it shook the ground of the theatres it graced. With the exception of Jar Jar, The Star Wars prequels biggest flaw was lacking the same emotional shock to the system that Vader gave the fans when he revealed the truth to Luke on Cloud City.

Had Lucas taken the time or given enough thought - here is one possible outcome:

Palpatine, then Senator of Naboo, had foreseen the birth of Anakin long before he was ever conceived. Knowing what a powerful Jedi Skywalker would surely become, the would-be Emperor saw his opportunity to rekindle the fire of the Dark Side through this boy who would become the greatest Jedi in the galaxy - if only he could lure him to the dark side.

In a matter typical of the Medieval treaty-making of another time and galaxy, the Emperor chose to use his own daughter, Padmé, as a catalyst to convert his new apprentice. Finally Palpatine would find a use for his disappointing offspring born completely inept of the force and thus no help in his quest to establish a new order.

His former wife, the princess of Naboo, had paid the ultimate price for her failure when the Sith Lord crushed her neck and contorted her meager body in a storm of rage. Hers was the most heinous of failures, the inability to produce a force-wielding, masculine child. She was dealt with accordingly - appropriately. The barren wretch would surely draw some solace knowing the otherwise useless child she had begotten would finally serve the cause of the Dark Side. He would use his daughter’s feeble kindness, combined with his own gift of manipulation to bring Anakin and Padmé together in a time of crisis where a bond was sure to develop.

In order to ensure that the Emperor’s cruel lineage continued to dominate the galaxy - his plan would include a mixing of the bloodlines - his own with that of Skywalker. The resulting children would undoubtedly be more powerful than Vader and Palpatine combined. Then, when the time was right - his daughter would die violently. As a martyr to the new Galactic Empire, her death would bring about the final transformation of this young warrior into the most powerful Dark Lord of the Sith in the history of the galaxy.

The grandchildren would of course be a threat to him, as would Vader. It would require careful manipulation of the truth to ensure the two Skywalkers’ hate was turned towards each other and not himself. Once his grandson had come of age - he would begin the Sith trials and kill his father, his only rival, to gain the favor of his master or die trying. It was the Sith way - the only way.

The Jedi would be no match for this unrelenting wave of Darkness that was now sure to envelope the galaxy. Everything was proceeding exactly as he had foreseen it.

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Those of us thoroughly disgusted with the lack of quality in the Star Wars Prequels and Special Edition revisions can breathe a much deserved sigh of relief. The one they call Fett is coming to a TV screen near you!

The latest edition of Star Wars Insider has confirmed that the most feared and notorious bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe, Boba Fett, will “play an instrumental part” in the upcoming live action TV series slated to debut in 2009.

After the combined assault of Greedo shoots first, Jar Jar Binks, and Hayden Christensen’s deplorable “I hate them” disaster from AOTC, those loyal fans who endured decades of waiting only to be disappointed may yet receive that which they deserve.

Look for the series to take a much darker, more mature tone. Rumors indicate the plot will involve a more in depth approach to character development of Boba Fett. Think Tony Soprano. He’s not good. He’s not bad. He’s somewhere in between and he’s packing enough blasters, rockets, flame throwers, concussion grenades, nerve agents, and edged gauntlets to make both the good and bad guys take a step back.

Others not confirmed, but rumored to join Boba Fett in the series are Chewbacca, several characters from the expanded universe, pod racers, Star Destroyers, Death Star plans, and last but not least - Madonna.

I for one, find myself suffering from the same plight I endured through 1999 - what am I supposed to do with myself between now and the release? I can only hope that this time around, The George lends an ear to the woes of his angry legion of fans and spends a little more time on the script and much, much less on the merchandising.

~Man Overboard

Images Used in this Post

Bobba Fett image courtesy of Flickr user hunterseakerhk published under the CC license.

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1. Star Fleet Officers are not known for pulling people’s arms out of their sockets when they lose.
2. John Williams can tell the story with just the music. Alexander Courage could not find honest work if he had a dancing monkey and a blind kid in front of him.
3. The special effects in Star Trek look like an 8th graders video yearbook project.
4. Legitimate characters perish in Star Wars as opposed to Ensign John A. Nonomous and Lt. Commander Jen Eriq being introduced and killed off in the same scene and I just never saw it coming.
5. A Phaser sounds and looks like my TVs remote and is no match for a good blaster at your side.
6. I will have no part in a future completely devoid of puppets or midgets.
7. Khan is not Kirk’s father.
8. A pirate, a bounty hunter, and a wizard compared to a doctor who isn’t a -blank-, a nondescript Russian, and a Scotsman who can’t hold it together.
9. Did I mention the effects sucked in Star Trek?
10. Even Mark Hamill did not stoop so low as a Priceline.com commercial to pay the bills when the career took a dive.

~Man Overboard

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