Nothing phases me in Dubai anymore. Anything and everything is possible in this city, so when I read news like this: "Dubai plans self-powered skyscraper with individually rotating floors," I'm quite numb.

Opening para: "A $350 million tower to be known as the Dynamic Architecture building is to be constructed in Dubai. The 68-story tower will feature floors that can be individually rotated via voice commands."

So each floor of this building will rotate individually to create a building that constantly changes shape. (I've stopped asking "why" when it comes to such projects.) Also, it will use wind-turbines to generate electricity for itself and another 5 buildings its size -- that's actually pretty neat, not to mention green.

Construction will start this month and word is that a similar project is in plan for Moscow as well.

We wrote here on Gadling about Dubai arresting people for having a spec of marijuana on their shoes while transiting through the airport, and then sentencing them to 4-years in Dubai Central Prison.

I'm currently in Dubai and in the 3 days that I've been here I've heard of 4 stories of acquaintances in jail for having 0.02 grams of hash on them -- all that happened at the airport on "Bush Day".

I don't know how they manage to sniff out people with 0.02 grams of hash on them. They say that the customs have some high-tech sensors that pick up on it, but there is no security check of consequence on the way out; your hand bag does get screened, but that's after passport control and there isn't any walk-through detector.

There's a lead story in today's Guardian that talks about the same and how Dubai has the longest list of banned substances, possession of which leads to imprisonment. The list includes: codeine, poppy seeds and many well-known anti-depressants.

He may be a well-known actor, but according to Brad Pitt, his real passion is architecture. The Hollywood star is taking his passion to Dubai where he will be designing a five star resort, complete with hotel rooms and a leisure complex which will host flashy events and awards ceremonies. According to the property company, the complex will be "socially conscious" and a world leader in environmental sustainability.

Pitt says he has a strong belief in "environmentally friendly architecture," but that gives rise to the following question: how environmentally friendly can a 800 room luxury resort really be? I mean, aren't the oil tycoons, Hollywood stars and big time businessman who will be the hotel's main clientele already putting a significant cost on the environment with their private jets and numerous automobiles?

Are these the strangest hotels on the planet?

This week, Big in Japan is on vacation in the Middle East, and will be bringing you travel news and happenings from this often misunderstood region.

Read the news on any given day, and you'll mostly likely hear about the biggest, tallest, and most expensive something or other in Dubai, that crazy oil-rich Emirate that makes Las Vegas look about as glamorous as a county fair in Nebraska. Then again, you have to give credit where credit is due. Although the oil tap is predicted to run dry sometime in the next several decades, the rulers of Dubai are on a campaign to make their tiny Persian Gulf state into one of the world's leading tourist attractions.

Of course, these days Dubai is something of a glorified construction site, especially since the city is rumored to contain something crazy like 15% of all the cranes in the world! And, while it's still going to be another five to ten years before Dubai can rest on its laurels as the top destination in the Middle East, there are still plenty of mind-blowing attractions that are currently open and eagerly waiting for your tourist dollar.

On that note, I present to you '5 awesome things you can do in Dubai right now.'

A British father of three named Keith Brown has been sentenced to four years in prison after being found guilty of possessing .003 grams of cannabis. The man, a council youth development officer, was going through Customs at the Dubai Airport, and apparently had the marijuana particle-- smaller than a grain of sugar-- stuck to his shoe.

Brown is a Rastafarian who was returning from a visit to his family in Ethiopia. He was imprisoned in September of 2007 but sentenced only this week. UAE officials say he will be deported after serving his four-year sentence.

Mr. Brown isn't the only one to feel the wrath of Dubai's draconian drug laws. Last month, charges against a German national were finally dropped after the man spent six weeks behind bars. His crime? Trying to pass through customs with .03 grams of hash in his bag. That's about the size of a speck of dirt, and the man claimed he never knowingly possessed the hash.

The drugs, though invisible to the human eye, are detectable in customs using high-tech equipment, and customs officials are reportedly given a bonus for each arrest. Dubai's drug laws were changed in 2006 so that the possession of even the most miniscule amount of a drug is considered possession.

Well, it's at least nice to hear that Dubai doesn't have any actual crime to worry about.

This week's economic radio show Marketplace, a production from American Public Media, is covering the ins and outs of Dubai. Hosted by the eccentric and hip Kai Ryssdal, Marketplace is spending the week entrenching itself with the populous, covering everything from night club activity to oil prices to expatriate feelings in the Arab State. It's an interesting viewpoint on the booming culture where you find yourself surprised by at least a few things in every story. For example, welfare recipients in the country earn nearly five thousand dollars a month in pay, largely financed by oil and business revenues in the state.

I know, you may be thinking that public radio is for sissies, but Marketplace puts an interesting spin and delivery on their stories. While I am nowhere near an economist nor have I ever been to Dubai, each of their stories feels relevant and important to me as a listener.

If you're in the listening mood right now, Marketplace runs in the evenings around 6PM (depending on your local station's schedule). Alternatively, check out their website and past reports on marketplace.org.

Now all I need to do is book a trip to Dubai. I wonder if I can stay with Abha's parents?

I am sure that life has been better for the unfortunate Swiss person, arrested in United Arab Emirates (UAE) after the airport security people found "three poppy seeds on his clothing after he ate a bread roll at Heathrow airport," as reported in The Times.

The charity Fair Trials International, which assists people facing trials abroad, issued a warning following a spate of arrests of visitors to Dubai and Abu Dhabi stating that carrying some foodstuffs and common over-the-counter medications could warrant a four-year prison sentence in UAE.

Among the banned substances are foods containing poppy seeds; melatonin, which is taken to ease the effects of jetlag; codeine, a common ingredient in pain relief medication, and any trace of drugs such as cannabis, however small. For a full list of substances banned in the UAE, click here.

Remember, no poppy seed bagels before flying to Dubai. It's not a Jewish thing. It's a poppy seed thing.

What strange things have been found on planes?

Click the image to read the bizarre story...

A British traveler traveling through Dubai International Airport on a layover has just been sentenced to four years in a United Arab Emirate jail.

You're probably thinking he did something crazy like punched a flight attendant, as Iva wrote about yesterday. You'll never believe this: he was arrested for having a microscopic bit of marijuana on the bottom of his shoe.

The marijuana--which is strictly illegal in the UAE--weighed in at 0.003 grams, which is invisible to human eyes. But apparently the custom agents there practice a even harsher form of racial profiling than the American TSA folks.

Here are some more outrageous cases:

Internet has undoubtedly changed the way we communicate, travel, think, and even live. So what happens when there is an all out Internet failure? A good bit of chaos.

That's exactly what happened today across large parts of the Middle East, Asia and North Africa, when tens of millions of Internet users were without a connection. India's bandwidth was cut in half, posing problems for not only the outsourcing industry that is dependent on Internet connections, but also the stock exchanges in Delhi and Bombay. The United Arab Emirates was also hit hard, as the outage affected telephone and television services. Dubai's businesses, notoriously known for their billion dollar a day transactions, were also stuck without a way to conduct affairs. Basically, things got messy.

As for travelers? Although sources from Emirate Airlines denied that the Internet failure would lead to flight delays, Dnata, a government group in charge of air travel services in the Middle East, admitted that they would most likely be facing some problems. So if you are traveling in that area today or through the weekend, I would recommend to be flexible and prepared for anything.

Here's a quick question for you:

Name the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions the city of Dubai.

a) Billions and billions of dollars worth of untapped oil reserves
b) Something akin to the Las Vegas of the Arabian Gulf
c) A desert oasis of shopping malls and astronomically expensive hotels
d) More ridiculous bling than the front row of a Ludicrous concert
e) An environmentally unsustainable nightmare built by slave labor

If you answered any or all of the above, by all means you are indeed correct!

However, it is only going to be a few more months before Dubai also boasts what will most likely be the world's largest video arcade.

Seriously.

From Japan to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sega is about to launch its brand name on the Arab world.

Last week, a representative from the Japanese game company announced that it intends to build a mega-arcade in the Dubai Mall, which will be completed later this year.

Needless to say, Sega also announced that their first mega-arcade in the Middle East will be unlike anything the world has ever seen before.