Slashdot Mirror
Dubai Is Building a Refrigerated Beach
dataxtream writes "The world's first refrigerated beach is to be built at a luxury hotel in Dubai, located along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf. The beach will include heat-absorbing pipes under the sand along with large wind blowers, which will keep tourists cool and guard their feet against the hot sand. Half of me says these guys need a reality check, the other half wants to go there." I believe I've just thought of a way we could solve this whole global warming thing I've been hearing about.
not all nerds collect hard drive platters for a living .... I have an architectural background and think it quite interesting when fringe type ideas make it unto slashdot. Nerd =! Computers there are many other types of Tech out there besides C++
Given that there are more foreign workers in Dubai than there are citizens, and that most of those foreign workers get by on little better than slave wages and with few rights, I'm amazed something nasty hasn't happened already.
Dubai is building their playground for the rich on the backs of exploited foreign laborers. That sort of arrangement is rarely successful over the long term. Eventually the scattered civil unrest gets larger and more organized, and then the real trouble starts.
No, I don't expect you would hear them speak about it. Better to have it just be a surprise to the bad guys, but I'd be very surprised if there isn't a plan. Also, in a small country like Dubai, it's easy to both know and control who goes in and out, and how they do so. Additionally, I expect that in Dubai, their laws probably give them rather broad authority in that are. Finally, Dubai is at least somewhat less of a target simply by virtue of the fact that it is an Islamic nation. That isn't to say that the terrorists have any qualms about killing other Muslims with whom they disagree - they most certainly have none - but it would make them look bad to attack an Islamic nation, and while they care not a whit for human lives, they do care about image and PR. Marketing, in fact, is probably the thing they are better at than anything else.
shhhh. You'll pop their bubble. Ooops. Too late.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
What they are proposing is just to extract the solar thermal energy from the beach sand. The solar energy doesn't have to be wasted. If they were to take the solar heat laden coolant, and pass it through a heat exchanger, and into a Stirling engine, they could use it to generate electricity to power desalination equipment, for example. Using the cooler ocean water as the heat sink wouldn't produce very high efficiency, but it would still be a net gain. It wouldn't cost very much more than just throwing the heat away. They could get coolor sand, and generate solar power at the same time. Just a thought...
"all beaches are not like Daytona."
I've been to Daytona, and all I can say to that is: Thank Fucking God.
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
What do the people in your office do? Are they out there building and maintaining the wonders of Dubai's skyline? Working the dredgers that build up the artificial islands? Serving the meals, cleaning the sheets, polishing the brass, driving the trucks?
Yeah. Of course the office workers aren't getting the slave wages. They're the rich people the slaves are building Dubai for.
Jeez man, think a little. Just because you need a job doesn't mean you're poor.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!