Comments on: 360-degree panorama photo taken atop the world's tallest building

360-degree panorama photo taken atop the world's tallest building

stbalbach — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:12:53 -0800

This 2.5 gigapixel panoramic image (zoom) was taken from the top of Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest building. It was taken to promote the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award, the world's richest photography award, sponsored and created by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai.

By: valkyryn

valkyryn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:17:39 -0800

I mean, the whole "tallest building ever" thing is cool and all, but every time I see images of the surroundings I always wonder why anyone would want to build anything there, much less a multi-billion dollar phallic symbol.

By: Sangermaine

Sangermaine — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:18:16 -0800

Yeah, this is cool and all, but there's just nothing there to see. It seems to just reinforce how ridiculous the Dubai building frenzy of the last decade was.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:20:14 -0800

Yeah, it's amazing how empty a place can be when you skip over the low-rise step of development and skip right to 50+ story high-rises. It's like one row of tall buildings along the metro, and nothing behind them.

By: Sokka shot first

Sokka shot first — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:21:13 -0800

It is arguably the greatest image on earth It is a desperate rubric for greatness indeed that would result in this image being its exemplar.

By: photoslob

photoslob — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:22:48 -0800

It's a 2.5 gigapixel photograph devoid of any soul. You could have accomplished the same thing by photographing a circuit board with a 4x5 camera and a scanning back.

By: zamboni

zamboni — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:23:02 -0800

It is arguably the greatest image on earth It is the greatest image in exactly the same way as the Burj Khalifa is the greatest building.

By: DU

DU — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:24:50 -0800

It is arguably the greatest image on earth imma let them finish, but nyan cat

By: Sokka shot first

Sokka shot first — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:25:20 -0800

Also, wow, what a weird video. It's like a really sentimental commercial for being born insanely, unbelievably wealthy. Who made that? Who's the intended audience?

By: Wordshore

Wordshore — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:26:18 -0800

Immediate thoughts. 1. (Looking straight down) odd, but appears to be some distance above the building it's supposedly taken from the top of? 2. No public transport anywhere? Is surviving there totally reliant on having an air-conditioned car? 3. Heck, it's SimCity. Except one where the options for interesting terrain, culture and aspects of humanity are turned off, and the designer got bored very quickly of adding trees and other nice bits of nature.

By: roger ackroyd

roger ackroyd — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:26:47 -0800

It is arguably the greatest image on earth AND THE ENTIRE KNOWN UNIVERSE

By: lampshade

lampshade — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:27:34 -0800

At the top of the page it asks : Is this the greatest image on Earth? If by great you mean a picture of rampant land development resulting in structures that have no business being where they are, then maybe yes. If by great you mean a picture that expresses something that cannot be described in words because of its visual beauty, then absolutely no. It's a cool picture and all that, but it seems to be more of a "let me hold a contest so I can revel in the fact that I spent a lot of money" more than some quest for a memorable image. Your ~~taxes~~ gas prices at work.

By: jaduncan

jaduncan — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:28:05 -0800

Heck, it's SimCity. Except one where the options for interesting terrain, culture and aspects of humanity are turned off, and the designer got bored very quickly of adding trees and other nice bits of nature. As in so many SimCity games, they got killed by the debt payments.

By: Elly Vortex

Elly Vortex — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:28:15 -0800

Cool, you can see the Palm Islands in the distance. Such a bizarre idea. I love it for its bizarreness.

By: hal9k

hal9k — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:29:05 -0800

Look, I can see your haj from here.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:32:00 -0800

Needs a dangling Tom Cruise.

By: jaduncan

jaduncan — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:32:02 -0800

taken from the top of Burj Khalifa in Dubai, If you look directly downwards it doesn't look like it's directly on top at all. There is, for example, no floor but there is a roof apparently somewhat below. Am I missing something about how this is made?

By: elizardbits

elizardbits — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:33:36 -0800

I like how they allege that a photography award program that started last year is "internationally renowned", and then follow up by basically admitting that the only reason for this alleged renown is that they offer the biggest prize.

By: elizardbits

elizardbits — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:34:43 -0800

I just picture Dubai as being full of dudes both literally and metaphorically bludgeoning one another with enormous solid gold penises.

By: cromagnon

cromagnon — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:35:09 -0800

Bah. I couldn't zoom in enough to see a single indentured construction worker. What kind of representation is this?

By: Jehan

Jehan — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:35:31 -0800

If you zoom in to the south you can almost see the slave colonies...

2. No public transport anywhere? Is surviving there totally reliant on having an air-conditioned car?

There is a Dubai Metro.

By: Jehan

Jehan — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:35:46 -0800

Snap!

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:36:05 -0800

I always wonder why anyone would want to build anything there, much less a multi-billion dollar phallic symbol. I think you have your answer right there.

By: theodolite

theodolite — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:37:21 -0800

Also, wow, what a weird video. It's like a really sentimental commercial for being born insanely, unbelievably wealthy. Who made that? His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Who's the intended audience? His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

By: Sangermaine

Sangermaine — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:38:39 -0800

I just picture Dubai as being full of dudes both literally and metaphorically bludgeoning one another with enormous solid gold penises. WHO RUN BUBBLETOWN?

By: jaduncan

jaduncan — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:39:31 -0800

multi-billion dollar phallic symbol. Dubai somewhat amuses me in that it seems rather like cargo cult capitalism. New York and London are sensible to build high rise/skyscrapers in because there's a lot of pressure for land. They are happily relatively successful in business. Therefore Dubai must build skyscrapers because that indicates business success in the West.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:40:18 -0800

1. (Looking straight down) odd, but appears to be some distance above the building it's supposedly taken from the top of? Ha! Good catch. And by "some distance," you mean, like, three or four times the height of the building. Nice try, Dubai. (<---new trendy catchphrase)

By: Wordshore

Wordshore — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:41:21 -0800

It's the heat, the aridness (only water salt water) that puts me off even pictures of this place. Either having to stay in an (artificial) air conditioned environment, or endure sweaty, burning heat. Urgh. Can feel skin getting itchy just looking at this. (Also the fact that Jim Davidson describes this place as 'home' doesn't endear it, either. Skin, itchy again, etc.) Going to watch one of the lovely, cool, refreshing videos on this FPP again to feel less parched now.

By: jaduncan

jaduncan — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:43:01 -0800

Also the fact that Jim Davidson describes this place as 'home' doesn't endear it, either. In fairness, it was always fairly clear that he wanted to be waited on by some ethnically defined slave class.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:43:08 -0800

New York and London are sensible to build high rise/skyscrapers in because there's a lot of pressure for land. They are happily relatively successful in business. Therefore Dubai must build skyscrapers because that indicates business success in the West. And they build more land on the ocean, when they've got miles and miles of perfectly good land on, um, land.

By: cromagnon

cromagnon — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:43:30 -0800

> Also the fact that Jim Davidson describes this place as 'home' Not for long :)

By: forgetful snow

forgetful snow — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:44:56 -0800

jaduncan, they're better locations but colossal glamour projects are still not unreservedly great ideas - AFAIK the Shard is still at 0% occupancy, months after opening.

By: Jehan

Jehan — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:45:09 -0800

Isn't Jim Davidson soon to be a guest at one of Her Majesty's hostels for the naughty?

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:46:02 -0800

No public transport anywhere? Is surviving there totally reliant on having an air-conditioned car? Not to be That Guy, but I mean, I suppose we could ask the folks who have been living there for like, I dunno, nine thousand years how they do it.

By: oinopaponton

oinopaponton — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:46:13 -0800

If you zoom in to the south you can almost see the slave colonies... This is the only reason I opened this image, and sure enough, if you look at the periphery where city turns into desert in the south, there are a lot of buildings that look like they drew their inspiration from a delightful range of architectural options including Soviet apartment buildings and straight-up concentration camps. Anyone know Dubai well enough to confirm or deny that this is where the foreign workers live?

By: Flashman

Flashman — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:49:01 -0800

Dubai-ous

By: obscurator

obscurator — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:49:53 -0800

Ah yes, the majestic Burj ~~Dubai~~ Khalifa (see fun fact #10)

By: aerotive

aerotive — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:50:24 -0800

This makes me wanna play Crackdown again...

By: ts;dr

ts;dr — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:52:16 -0800

if you watch one of the Dubai Metro videos on youtube (maybe start here at 6:30) it looks positively metropolitan, compared to the arid wasteland of that picture. Not seeing the street level helps probably. Also note that the Burj Dubai is far away from the city center, you can see it if you skip forward to 26:30.

By: Jehan

Jehan — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:55:23 -0800

Isn't it true that Dubai has no sewage system? So the world's tallest building actually has a cesspit!

By: Atom Eyes

Atom Eyes — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:55:33 -0800

If you look directly downwards it doesn't look like it's directly on top at all. There is, for example, no floor but there is a roof apparently somewhat below. I assumed the camera was attached to the top of a rooftop antenna, and that the blindspot in the center of the image as you look straight down was the antenna itself.

By: ts;dr

ts;dr — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:57:12 -0800

"I assumed the camera was attached to the top of a rooftop antenna, and that the blindspot in the center of the image as you look straight down was the antenna itself." yes, it is an effect of editing a 360 picture together. You can see the same effect on all of these pictures.

By: jaduncan

jaduncan — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:12:03 -0800

Isn't it true that Dubai has no sewage system? So the world's tallest building actually has a cesspit! It's being built out. I would assume that the new build stuff is hooked in at build time; it's cheaper that way.

By: Chutzler

Chutzler — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:17:19 -0800

I really wanted to zoom into some windows or some dog slobber or something.

By: divined by radio

divined by radio — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:33:44 -0800

Cool, you can see the Palm Islands in the distance. Such a bizarre idea. I love it for its bizarreness. You can also see the World Islands, the sheer scale and wanton wastefulness of which I find similarly horrifying and entrancing. I guess I understand where they were coming from originally, as the UAE seemed to approach building out their infrastructure with the idea that their oil reserves would remain a consistent source of wealth for generations to come, but -- what the hell? Building islands in the middle of the sea next to a giant desert? How could that ever be considered remotely sustainable, and why wouldn't its clear lack of sustainability take it off the drawing board before the first grain of sand was dredged? Dubai (Palm/World Islands in particular.. and let's not forget The Universe!) is one of those topics I can read about for hours on end, if only to marvel over the hubris, stupidity, stubbornness, ruthlessness, and ingenuity of the human race. Not only are all the islands that slave laborers painstakingly terraformed slowly eroding back into the waters from whence they came, but all the city's raw sewage that doesn't manage to make it onto a truck that can queue long enough to successfully drop its cargo at the city's one (1) sewage treatment plant... just gets dumped onto sand dunes, into storm drains, or straight-up directly into the Persian Gulf. Those pristine white sand beaches and sparkling turquoise waters are rife with shit and piss. A lot of days, I feel like our species simply doesn't deserve to inhabit the earth. Thanks for posting this.

By: Kitteh

Kitteh — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:43:33 -0800

Good lord, I am getting vertigo just scrolling around that thing.

By: lostburner

lostburner — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:44:29 -0800

I assumed the camera was attached to the top of a rooftop antenna, and that the blindspot in the center of the image as you look straight down was the antenna itself. There's also a weird area on one of the rooftop decks where something has been edited out. You can see where the shadows don't point the same direction, and one side of the deck is the mirror image of the opposite side, right down to the stains in the cement. Part of that deck is cut off in a weird way, but I could put that down to the panorama just not resolving neatly. The mirrored deck is definitely Photoshoppery.

By: emelenjr

emelenjr — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:48:09 -0800

imma let them finish, but ~~nyan cat~~ oprah-bees.gif

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:53:34 -0800

It's really fun to zoom in on stuff though. The airport looks very science-fictiony in a 90s way.

By: w0mbat

w0mbat — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:05:35 -0800

I stayed at a hotel on one of the palms for my friend's wedding last year. The palm peninsula things are really practical. It's all new beachfront. Same principal as those funky brownie pans.

By: bongo_x

bongo_x — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:16:02 -0800

The place you live sucks, you're doing it wrong.

By: Drexen

Drexen — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:48:51 -0800

Money-obsessed urban centre in the middle of an arid desert, with incongruously, crassly extravagant giant buildings, an underpaid underclass serving the absurdly rich, and no public transport? The punchline is: Las Vegas.

By: achrise

achrise — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:50:25 -0800

I spent some time with comparing this with Google Maps and was surprised that you can only see detail out to about 10-15 miles. I found, for instance, Dubai Textile City (9 mi.) to be an interesting landmark simply because of the mass of low rectangular pastel-roofed buildings. And although you can see the World Islands (5 mi.) and the Palm Jumeria (10 mi.), I can barely make out the Palm Jabel Ali (20 mi.) Also interesting - not covered by Street View.

By: seanmpuckett

seanmpuckett — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:54:27 -0800

The difference between Las Vegas and Dubai is that Las Vegas earns its own upkeep.

By: axiom

axiom — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:03:42 -0800

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:09:28 -0800

The difference between Las Vegas and Dubai is that Las Vegas earns its own upkeep. Sex on the beach in LV is a drink. In Dubai, it's a prison term. So maybe that's not the biggest difference.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:12:52 -0800

Also, between LV and Dubai, I know where I'd rather get stoned.

By: rodii

rodii — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:14:28 -0800

Good lord, I am getting vertigo just scrolling around that thing. Then you need to ctrl-click/right-click/whatever-click and try out the various views. I recommend the little planet view especially--pan up and you can watch the world turn itself inside out.

By: dosterm

dosterm — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:44:47 -0800

Putting that much high density commercial zoning in the middle of that sprawl of low value medium density industrial and low density residential is not a recipe for success in Sim City I can tell you that much.

By: Uther Bentrazor

Uther Bentrazor — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:09:57 -0800

I've always found Dubai to be eerily fascinating; everything I read about it makes it sound like a giant flashy Potemkin village for rich, Middle Eastern oilmen who live elsewhere to point to.

By: Jehan

Jehan — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:29:47 -0800

The thing about Dubai is that it never had that much oil, and the rulers have long been aware that it would soon dwindle. The growth of the town we see today is some kind of answer to that; a shot a building a working economy not based on oil. Dubai has sought to do over the last twenty years what many economies in the area will have to do at some point. The outcome for Dubai isn't that great because it doesn't have the groundwork: the modernity is skindeep, the economy is footloose, rule of law is weak, and the human cost is thousands of slaves. Look forward to when other Arabian countries are driven to do the same, and the forelook is awful.

By: Sangermaine

Sangermaine — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:01:18 -0800

The growth of the town we see today is some kind of answer to that; a shot a building a working economy not based on oil. Jehan I think what gets people is that it was such an obviously ridiculous, unworkable shot. How was building this absurdity the best idea? It's admirable that they're looking forward, but surely working on developing infrastructure and education and fostering and investing in new industries would have been a much, much better use of their money and would have better long-term results.

By: muckster

muckster — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:07:21 -0800

Lots of snark here, but I found myself clicking around and zooming in on stuff for WAY longer than I anticipated. Thanks for the post.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:13:52 -0800

Therefore Dubai must build skyscrapers because that indicates business success in the West. I don't think so... a lot of this development is aimed at older Europeans who want to turn their boring but very expensive house into a retirement home in somewhere sunny (that isn't Spain). People buying an expensive condo either want a view or they want seafront. So lots of skyscrapers and lots of fake waterfront.

By: unliteral

unliteral — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:19:03 -0800

Does Edgar Martins have an entry in this?

By: ymgve

ymgve — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:48:27 -0800

I liked this portrayal of Dubai

By: smoke

smoke — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:42:44 -0800

Whilst I, too, must suppress an instinctive shudder when thinking of Dubai, as a monument to hubris, built on and perpetuating environmental depravity, authoritarianism and 19th century labour conditions, I must say I find the emotion, and in my opinion the racism/imperialism a lot of people reveal when talking about it quite interesting. There is a sense of personal insult that does not seem present when talking about other emerging megalopises in Saudi Arabia, Brazil, sub-Saharan Africa - and a woeful ellipsis when considering the genesis of many of our own cities - built for reasons no more or less specious than Dubai's, with equally bad conditions. I don't know, I don't think Dubai is as unusual as all that - goodness, surely the Bundt in Shanghai is at least as gaudy. It makes me wonder how much of the wide-eyed horror could be ascribed to the idea of a different, non-western, inferior culture "aping" us, and perhaps doing it better. One might argue those aspects of Western culture and city-building are equally repellent, but they don't seem to engender the calumny, and indeed cramped cityscapes like New York are viewed as iconic. In some ways, I think Dubai inspires such revulsion because we see so much of ourselves and our culture when looking at it. If it's not in the cement, we project it anyway. It defies notions of Western superiority at "Westerness", and exposes it for a shallow hypocrisy and a concept not worth championing. It is also a harbinger of a global turning away from the blue-haired, crotchety old-timers of the West. It forces us to wonder if Dubai will treat us like we treated Dubai - and all the non-western world. Thus, horror, mingled with an undercurrent of fear.

By: Wolof

Wolof — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:28:45 -0800

By the Bundt, did you mean the view across the Huangpu to Pudong? I thought the Bundt itself was rather nice.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:35:26 -0800

I'm also kind of appalled by the imperialism/racism in the form of jokes or otherwise in this thread. The punchline is: Las Vegas. This, precisely. But it's going to be like Vegas on steroids from another planet. Dubai isn't doing anything that the US hasn't done or is currently doing. We're also supported by oil. Almost everything cultural under the sun that the US has done in the last 100 years is supported by oil. Art, sciences, the food you eat, the clothes all around you, your bed, landing on the moon. They're a mirror of Western luxury and comfort culture. They're doing this on purpose to attract hyperrich tourists. They're going to become an adult, permissive Disneyland-Vegas. They'll selectively look away from rule-breaking like "sex on the beach" drugs, gambling and prostitution or sex trafficking if you're rich and discreet enough, just like Vegas did for years. And they'll still use that to control tourists as needed. Just enough to keep them coming and just enough to keep the broke or bothersome ones away. Worse, they'll really use it to control all of the cheap construction and service industry labor they've been freely importing from all over Asia. If you look towards the water, just across the freeway is a whole shanty town in a field right next to the tallest building in the world, and they're dotted all over the city. And stuff like the Palms or World islands are totally insane, but they're basically rolling the dice that they'll become the spot for the rich and famous before they run out of oil and oil money. And they just might do it, because imagine a city-state dedicated to pleasure/luxury as run by technocractic dystopian theocracy. It's already been a troubling venture with regards to human rights and employment, and it has the potential to become like something out of a Margaret Atwood novel. They've built a bunch of world class marinas. They've built stuff like an F1 course, and they're hosting F1 races either already or soon. They're a hop and a skip from the Mediterranean. It's all just so tasteless and extreme it just might work.

By: qxntpqbbbqxl

qxntpqbbbqxl — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:39:26 -0800

Also, wow, what a weird video. It's like a really sentimental commercial for being born insanely, unbelievably wealthy. Weirdly, I expected more opulence and more ostentatious wealth on display. Most of Hamdan's activities in that video are within reach of normal people: skydiving, actual diving, dune buggies. I expected him to be staging fights between gold-armored tigers and peasants or something.