Doing What Fountains Do

April 27, 2010 5:41 PM

At the foot of the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai there's a fountain. At night, this fountain does what fountains do. Well, not just any fountain. Baba Yetu | Time to Say Goodbye | Bassbor Al Fourgakom | Dhoom Taana. If you can, watch in 1080p in fullscreen.
posted by netbros (33 comments total)

Dubai's leader is spiritual and industrious, I take it?
posted by I_pity_the_fool at 5:48 PM on April 27, 2010 [17 favorites]

Wow. That Baba Yetu display was beautiful.
posted by darkstar at 5:52 PM on April 27, 2010

To be fair, Baba Yetu makes anything beautiful.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 5:53 PM on April 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

I think one can safely say, at this point the poor fish are beyond freaked out.
posted by uraniumwilly at 5:55 PM on April 27, 2010 [3 favorites]

BelLOLgio!
posted by hincandenza at 5:57 PM on April 27, 2010

Christopher Tin's other, non Baba Yetu stuff is also fun to listen to. It basically all sounds like Baba Yetu, but that's not a bad thing. Here are Kia Hora Te Marino and Sukla Krsne.
posted by Kattullus at 6:08 PM on April 27, 2010

Definitely done by the same folks who did the Bellagio fountains. They apparently have a Dubai office, in fact.

Probably my favorite thing to do in Vegas is to watch Con te Partiro in front of the Bellagio. There's something very cool about an experience that can take up your entire peripheral.
posted by disillusioned at 6:10 PM on April 27, 2010

I don't care how much it cost, this is the first time in a long time I have been gobsmacked with awe and wonder at something that human engineering mated with art has done.
posted by The otter lady at 6:11 PM on April 27, 2010

Sure to turn up in the background of the next Sex and the City movie!
posted by hermitosis at 6:35 PM on April 27, 2010

Very nice. Yes. Impressive. Now please turn your attention over to this hemisphere as we light the Gulf of Mexico.
posted by hal9k at 6:44 PM on April 27, 2010 [3 favorites]

Hey, I was just there a few weeks ago! There are restaurants in the buildings on the left and you can eat outside in the warm desert air and watch the fountain displays. It really is quite something.
posted by metric space at 6:58 PM on April 27, 2010

Watching the Baba Yetu clip all I could think of was Civ IV. Hours and hours of Civ IV.
posted by thecjm at 7:05 PM on April 27, 2010 [3 favorites]

Watching the Baba Yetu clip all I could think of was Civ IV. Hours and hours of Civ IV.

Good news, then! Civ 5 is on its way!

Oh c'mon, quit crying! You can get a new spouse once you're done playing it.
posted by fatbird at 7:12 PM on April 27, 2010 [2 favorites]

Dubai's leader is spiritual and industrious, I take it?

Nicely done.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:23 PM on April 27, 2010

Raise your hand if you immediately fired up Civ 4 after watching the Baba Yetu clip.
posted by threetoed at 7:25 PM on April 27, 2010

Well damn, that was pretty neat.
posted by Neofelis at 7:42 PM on April 27, 2010

I wonder if they know Baba Yetu is based on a Christian prayer?
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 8:02 PM on April 27, 2010

I type "Civilization V" into Google and it autofills "release date". Heh.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 8:25 PM on April 27, 2010

Also: tell me I'm not the only one to move sound files around so I could play the Civ IV: Warlords expansion and still hear Baba Yetu...
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 8:32 PM on April 27, 2010

Cool. Do they have the elevators working to the top now as well?
posted by cogneuro at 9:05 PM on April 27, 2010

Raise your hand if you immediately fired up Civ 4 after watching the Baba Yetu clip.

Just popped in to say well I'm off to play some Civ now..
posted by hypersloth at 9:19 PM on April 27, 2010

Great Wonder:

Burj Khalifa Tower
Cost: 1250 (Double production speed with oil)
Culture: 8
Great People Points: 2 (Great Merchant)
Requires: Divine Right, Combustion

+3 happiness.
Can ignore all requests for assistance from all allies / those with the same state religion without incurring penalties.
posted by markkraft at 9:38 PM on April 27, 2010 [3 favorites]

"Raise your hand if you immediately fired up Civ 4 after watching the Baba Yetu clip."

The sad thing is, I already had Civ IV open. It usually is -- and has been -- ever since I switched it from fullscreen mode to window mode.
posted by markkraft at 9:51 PM on April 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

This seems the place to plug the thing that has resurrected Civ IV for me: Legends of Revolutions.

This is better than Civ V, let me assure you.
posted by Meatbomb at 2:46 AM on April 28, 2010

Nice, very nice. Amazing what a few million bucks will buy. But oddly, it made me go watch this again, which for me was a lot more fun.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:43 AM on April 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

Spot-on comment on the Baba Yetu video by "Xtortion08": Slave labor can make some pretty cool looking shit!
posted by threeants at 6:50 AM on April 28, 2010

Nice, very nice. Amazing what a few million bucks will buy.

No, no. The citizens decided to build a monument to your greatness. Has everyone forgotten the original Civ?
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:52 AM on April 28, 2010

What a wonderful use of water resources in a desert nation.
posted by snottydick at 8:12 AM on April 28, 2010

OK, I admit that the gobsmackin' awe and wonder was tempered with utter loathing for humanity, that people are suffering while such money is spent on mere beauty, but that's pretty awesome in a OMG sort of way too. Sometimes this planet is the best freak-show.
posted by The otter lady at 8:20 AM on April 28, 2010

Civ V? Well, I'm creating an 18 month long event in google calendar right now. I shan't be going out, reading, showering or shaving until early 2012.
posted by I_pity_the_fool at 9:16 AM on April 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

"What a wonderful use of water resources in a desert nation."

In a report released last year, the World Bank found large disparities in water used between Israelis and Palestinians. Although both Palestinians and Israeli colonists share the same aquifer that runs the length of the West Bank, Palestinians have access to only a fifth of the water supply, the report said, while Israelis take the rest. In some areas of the West Bank, Palestinians survive on as little as 15 litres a person a day, which is at, or below, humanitarian disaster response levels recommended to avoid epidemic. (In Gaza, where Palestinians rely on an aquifer that has become increasingly saline and polluted, the situation is worse, for only 5 to 10 per cent of the available water is clean enough to drink.)

In prosperous countries, say in this case the US, the average American uses 100 gallons of water a day at home for cooking, drinking, bathing and washing. In Palestine, the average Israeli uses 92.5 gallons of water a day, whereas his Palestinian counterpart gets a mere 18 gallons. Worse than that — and this according to Beitseleem, the Israeli human rights group — when water is scarce, the Israeli water company Mekorot shuts the valves of the main pipelines supplying Palestinian towns and villages with water so that Israeli supplies remain unaffected.

...but yeah. Beautiful fountain. It's like dreams being shot into the air and evaporating in front of your eyes!
posted by markkraft at 10:56 AM on April 29, 2010

Markkraft shoots and misses by 1600 miles, 5 countries and 2 climates. Good try but... Dubai != Palestine. While this is a desert this is not a particularly arid climate. There are a number of large lakes north of the sound. Burj Khalifa Lake is probably not even potable water. And, although its obvious I'll toss this out there: This article has nothing to do with the Israel conflict. Keep the political sniping to relevant threads..
posted by darkfred at 5:34 PM on April 29, 2010

1290 miles and two countries, actually, with Saudi Arabia and Jordan in between. It's about 150 less in distance than the Colorado River.

As for the man-made lake itself, it appears that while Burj Khalifa uses water from condensation to help water the grounds, the lake's water is taken from desalinization plants.

You know how Vegas seems like a wasteful, unsustainable man-made city in the middle of nowhere? The difference is, with the Burj Khalifa, people in the surrounding locales actually suffer significant hardship from too little water. You don't even have to travel all that far to see it.
posted by markkraft at 9:22 PM on April 29, 2010