The whole idea of a linear city is daft. A circle is way more efficient at getting around. The dimensions of the Line are, of course, silly as well.
nah, a circle is daft. an sphere in space is much better. bring in that 3rd dimension!
End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity
91–100 of 448 posts
Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity
#92The only thing the Gulf states have going for them is oil money and a good hub location on the Europe–Southeast Asia airline routes. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Bahrain, Qatar, they all remind me of that quote from King of the Hill—they are monuments to man's arrogance. Desert cities hitting 50+ °C air temperature at midday which means air conditioning everywhere; vapid luxury in the form of expensive garish cars, shop…
Air conditioning is far more efficient than heating (by a factor of 4x)
Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity
#93The only thing the Gulf states have going for them is oil money and a good hub location on the Europe–Southeast Asia airline routes. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Bahrain, Qatar, they all remind me of that quote from King of the Hill—they are monuments to man's arrogance. Desert cities hitting 50+ °C air temperature at midday which means air conditioning everywhere; vapid luxury in the form of expensive garish cars, shop…
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Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
No one "signs off" on an absolute monarch's design.
> No one "signs off" on an absolute monarch's design Nitpick, but MBS isn't the sovereign. His father is. Given MBS isn't acting as regent, he's actually--in the most technical way--a tyrant: "the tyrant was Very Obviously but not formally in charge, because he ruled extra-constitutonally, rather than abolishing the constitution. This is what seperates tyranny, a form of extra-constitutional one man rule, from monarc…
There is plenty of Historical precedent for a regency in monarchies. It's not necessarily a departure from the constitution, and in fact I cannot think of an enduring monarchic regime that has not had regency periods, that is, periods when someone rules in the stead of a nominal sovereign.
Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity
#95The only thing the Gulf states have going for them is oil money and a good hub location on the Europe–Southeast Asia airline routes. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Bahrain, Qatar, they all remind me of that quote from King of the Hill—they are monuments to man's arrogance. Desert cities hitting 50+ °C air temperature at midday which means air conditioning everywhere; vapid luxury in the form of expensive garish cars, shop…
> Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Bahrain, Qatar, they all remind me of that quote from King of the Hill—they are monuments to man's arrogance.
Do you also call Amsterdam with its dikes and below sea level, “a monument to man’s arrogance?
Wasn’t the moon landing a monument to man’s arrogance?
I think calling something “a monument to man’s arrogance” reveals more about the biases of the person saying it than about the actual thing.
Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
> all while in the back alley local chiefs who oppose stupid and unrealistic white elephant vanity projects are executed Can you give any keywords what to look for to read more about this?
Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017–2019_Saudi_Arabian_purge
That's not really what that was about, at all. I think most don't understand the state of Saudi Arabia. Modern Saudi Arabia was only founded in 1932, but the really interesting thing is that the founding king also had around 100 children, including 45 sons. And those sons also had tons of children. So there are thousands of direct lineage legitimate princes and princesses in Saudi Arabia, in a country of just 33 million!
There is a formal succession process, but it's been regularly sidestepped for various reasons. So you basically have a real-life Game of Thrones where your family aren't your loyal and trusted confidants, but the exact people you're paranoid of. And for very good reasons. For instance one Saudi king was assassinated by his nephew (who was later publicly decapitated), then his brother took the throne, and so on endlessly.
Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity
#97The only thing the Gulf states have going for them is oil money and a good hub location on the Europe–Southeast Asia airline routes. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Bahrain, Qatar, they all remind me of that quote from King of the Hill—they are monuments to man's arrogance. Desert cities hitting 50+ °C air temperature at midday which means air conditioning everywhere; vapid luxury in the form of expensive garish cars, shop…
Air conditioning is far more efficient than heating (by a factor of 4x)
What form of heating?
Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
> No one "signs off" on an absolute monarch's design Nitpick, but MBS isn't the sovereign. His father is. Given MBS isn't acting as regent, he's actually--in the most technical way--a tyrant: "the tyrant was Very Obviously but not formally in charge, because he ruled extra-constitutonally, rather than abolishing the constitution. This is what seperates tyranny, a form of extra-constitutional one man rule, from monarc…
There is plenty of Historical precedent for a regency in monarchies. It's not necessarily a departure from the constitution, and in fact I cannot think of an enduring monarchic regime that has not had regency periods, that is, periods when someone rules in the stead of a nominal sovereign.
> plenty of Historical precedent for a regency in monarchies
MBS isn't acting as a regent, though. Salman remains the formal head of state.
Dragonwriter made a compelling point, however, in Salman having formally delegated a lot of powers to MBS. So maybe MBS isn't a tyrant, though it's difficult to argue either Salman or MBS are absolute monarchs at this time in practice. (Their "crown" retains absolute power. But that's slightly, and very meaningfully, different.)
Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity
#99The whole idea of a linear city is daft. A circle is way more efficient at getting around. The dimensions of the Line are, of course, silly as well.
Yeah, I'm really struggling to understand why a linear city is appealing. I suppose if you set a hard limit of one train line in your city, then building it along that train line might make sense. You'd spend a lot of time on that one train line though - and I imagine in the central bits it would get really really busy as people are trying to get to the other end. And what happens if that train line breaks? Making a…
I don’t know if this applies so much to Neom, but I can think of many scenarios in which a linear city is more appealing than a circular one.
For example - if there is a natural element like a river, lake, canyon, etc. that you want to maximize city exposure to. A linear city roughly following the Grand Canyon would be infinitely more interesting than a circular one situated at one end of it.
Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Abu Dhabi does not belong in the list with the other ones. It has been extremely well run since Zayed bin Sultan It's also governed differently from the others in being an oligarchy. That requirement for consensus-building and internal variation creates robustness; it gave Dubai the room to experiment, for example, with religious moderation. It's not a view I hold too seriously. But I remember visiting the Emirates…
> the British were, in their time, far better at nation building than we've been in the post-War era who does "we" refer to? The Dutch? France?
> who does "we" refer to? The Dutch? France?
Sorry, clarified as America. Not aware of any Dutch nation building after WWII. (I'd argue the British also did better than the French.)