[Griff]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- For now, the world's tallest building-to-be is just a flower-shaped concrete tattoo on the desert sands, but its pilings are already in place, plunging 160 feet into the earth. When it's finished, visitors will swoon over this city from 123 stories high, if not more.

In fact the Burj Dubai will be much higher, the developers say dozens of stories taller than skyscrapers in Taiwan, Chicago or anywhere else. But they are keeping the exact height a secret to flummox competitors in the world's furious race for the title of tallest skyscraper.

I don't know if I'd insure it. Maybe it depends on whether they can sell it as an Arab pride vs an encroaching modernity thing. Pretty optimistic, fallout shelters might have been a more sensible use for the concrete but somebody needs to be looking forward. Anyway, good luck to them.

Designers have planned for catastrophes, manmade and other, said Greg Sang, Emaar's project manager for the Burj. Sang believes the concrete-core building would withstand an airliner strike of the sort that brought down the steel-frame World Trade Center.