LEGO Turing machine

We have LEGO computers. What does a Turing machine made with LEGO look like?

Like a dream come true.




Note: Turing machine, named after British computer scientist Alan Turing, is the basic concept of a computer.

I woke up in the biggest shopping mall in the world

Don't I feel stupid writing about a shopping mall. But the Dubai Mall, part of the town's major development (and its effort to promote the city's name) is hailed as the largest in the world with department stores from Bloomingdale’s to Galeries Lafayette opening soon.




No doubt other than being huge, its nice too. But I am most impressed by its Gold Souk section, adaquately Arabic themed similar to that inside Aladdin of Las Vegas, only more authentic.



And its 3 story tall aquarium is equally awe inspiring. We did the tunnel walk inside with sharks and large stingrays flying over, it was interesting.

I woke up in the tallest building in the world

Thanks my brother for that wide angle camera cause otherwise I would not be able to capture the whole building.

The Burj Dubai, still incomplete, is already the tallest man made structure in the world. Stands at 2680ft (818 meters), it is way taller than structures like the C. N. Tower. In fact it is 60% taller than the current number one the Taipei 101, and just a little short of twice the height of the World Trade Centers (not counting the antenna). Imagine that.

We got there at dusk so there were only that many pictures we could take before it became too dark. The surrounding was still construction area so there was no walking closer or visiting. A shame, it would have been amazing (and probably quite expensive) looking down from that observation deck.

But indeed, out of all our days in Dubai we could see it from afar. From the airport, the Burj Al Arab hotel and other places. Basically so long as the weather allows and you get the line of sight, it is visible. It is that big.

I woke up in a ski slope in the middle of a desert

Ski Dubai is an indoor ski facility attached to the Mall of the Emirates. From the outside it is a giant silvery slender enclosure.



Inside, it is a ski slope, freezing cold like a very very large refrigerator, complete with Christmas tree covered with real snow, and other ice sculptures.






It's actually quite amazing that people managed to build a ski ground in the middle of a desert. So much so, it is on snopes. The electric bill would have been crazy, if the UAE isn't an oil producing country.

Ironically, last week, snow actually fell on one of the mountains in the UAE, but that's news.