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...and that means extravagance should not be bounded, espeicailly in the oil-rich middle east (or Texas).
http://guide.theemiratesnetwork.com/living/dubai/images/the_palm/palm_jumeirah.jpg

Half of me says these guys need a reality check, the other half wants to go there.

Why bother going to Dubai anyhow? It is too hot, they only have sand and some fake islands that no-one wants to buy and no culture (unless you are into modern, megalomaniac architecture).

And refrigerated beaches...

Half of me says these guys need a reality check, the other half wants to go there.

Why bother going to Dubai anyhow? It is too hot, they only have sand and some fake islands that no-one wants to buy and no culture (unless you are into modern, megalomaniac architecture). And in terms of population, there are just overwhelmingly rich locals, western expats designing toy projects for said locals and Indian immigrants actually building those toy projects. If you are choosing a holiday destination, I could not thing of anything less interesting.

I am going to tweak your argument and replace "a nice lot on a lake" with "a strip of land along the ocean". Frankly, this helps the argument because it is conceivable for men to build 3 mile long lakes in the right terrain for their own rich pleasures. Whereas, like the spectrum of bandwidth that Verizon bought, like oceanfront property, is a limited resource.

Now... SHIT... I just spent $4 Billion dollar buying all this land! And I agreed when I bought it to play nice with my neighbors! Oh the horrors.

But wait! I can rent surf boards, jet skis, and other resources that I can develop to my visitors. I can install a boardwalk so that when they come, they can win crappy prizes and overpay for hot dogs. I can build a resort and charge for all sorts of special services that my best customers want. I can do this and make it so 10x the people can enjoy my property.

Oh sure, Donald Trump can build his own palm tree beaches on my property, but the people will want to visit MINE because I'll offer twice as many amenities. After all, I am the beachfront master and he is just a lowly chump who made some good investments in Midtown Manhattan. His properties in Atlantic City? He has the entire NYC metropolitan area to draw from and they still go to Vegas. What does *he* know about entertaining.

Case in point... being the best is more than just having the most expensive toys. It is about creating the most value for your customers. If Verizon can't profit from the spectrum without the restriction that they KNEW they signed up, they don't deserve to be in business 5 years from now.

And quite frankly, Google *was* ready to slap down $4 Billion and develop the network themselves. Had they won, you could rest assured that Verizon would be like AOL was 5 years ago... a struggling network provider without a clue about where it needs to invest to retain its customers. AOL is gone now. If Verizon gets their way, I will be switching to AT&T promptly and you can wait and see how long it takes before Google is valued at 5x what Verizon is so they can initiate a takeover/merger (they are currently only worth twice as much as Verizon).

Like this: http://realestate.theemiratesnetwork.com/developments/dubai/palm_islands/images/palm_jumeirah.jpg ?

Not coal though, oil will buy you that. Coal is on it's way out (or at least that's what we hope for)

And they really WILL make a spaceship modeled on Einstein's head.

They have a little fetish for cute stuff like that.

http://guide.theemiratesnetwork.com/living/dubai/t he_palm_islands.php

http://realestate.theemiratesnetwork.com/developme nts/dubai/world_islands.php Wouldn't it be so much cheaper to just MAKE your own country? Just find a place 30-40 miles from nowhere and make your own island(s). Under international laws, a nation can only be considered as such if it has physical land - and buolding your own island seems to be infinately easier than paying the ubsurd price for this abandoned(and burnt out since the fire) platform.

If you're interested, here's how you can buy your own island.

And if that's not grandiose enough, you could always just build.

It should be noted that this is basicaly the same story as the article earlier today on "Space Race 2.0 has Begun". It's an interesting story, though, and I don't mind seeing another link on it.

Also, for anybody ogling at the $265 million price for the spaceport, this is also about how much an airport might cost. It should also be noted that the UAE is a country where people are spending $1.8 billion on a chain of artificial islands arranged to look like a map of the world.

Of course, some people can afford to lose $100,000 if they have fun doing it. (Not me!)

Building new land in virtual space is very similar to what they're doing over in Dubai, it seems, though the actual investment required to build a virtual property is considerably less than building new islands.