Is this a sign of the times to come or a sign of the crimes to come? The UK Times reports:

Versace, the renowned fashion house, is to create the world’s first refrigerated beach so that hotel guests can walk comfortably across the sand on scorching days. The beach will be next to the the new Palazzo Versace hotel which is being built in Dubai where summer temperatures average 40C and can reach 50C.

The beach will have a network of pipes beneath the sand containing a coolant that will absorb heat from the surface. The swimming pool will be refrigerated and there are also proposals to install giant blowers to waft a gentle breeze over the beach.

And in the understatement of the year, the Times adds:

The scheme is likely to infuriate environmentalists.

I’m guessing the resort will also be introducing Hummer golf carts and coal-powered jet-skis. Then again, maybe the snarkiness is premature. Maybe this will be a “sustainable” refrigerated beach:

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In a landmark radio address today, President-elect Barack Obama announced his powerful science team and the end to Bush’s war on science, saying:

Today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation. It’s time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology.

Obama again signaled his belief in strong action on global warming — in case that wasn’t incredibly obvious already based on his science picks (see “Obama’s strongest message on climate yet: John Holdren to be named Science Adviser” and “For NOAA head, Obama appoints yet another scientist who gets climate“) or his key technology pick (see “A Nobelist for Energy Secretary who gets both climate and energy efficiency?“) — by unexpectedly repeating a key word in his address:

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