Fast Company Recommended Events December 2009

December

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Tue, December 01
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CityCenter opens Las Vegas

Six high-rise towers by eight renowned architects. Sixty-seven acres on the Vegas strip. Casinos, hotels, condos, theaters, galleries, and a shopping mall. It sounds worthy of once-booming Dubai, and for good reason: Dubai World, the firm behind enormous, egregious bubble-era projects like the Palm Islands, owns a 50% stake in City-Center. (MGM Mirage has the other half.) The $8.5 billion complex, touted by its builders as the most expensive commercial development in U.S. history, begins its rollout of openings with the Vdara Hotel & Spa. We hope it'll fare better than similar developments in Dubai like, well, the whole emirate, but things aren't looking sparkly -- condo prices at CityCenter were slashed by 30% in October, and travel to Vegas is down 6% in 2009. -- ZACHARY WILSON

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Tue, December 01
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World Aids Day

This year's theme is "Universal Access and Human Rights," but maybe it should be "Donate Now -- or Else." Of the 9.7 million HIV/AIDS sufferers in developing countries who need antiretroviral therapy, less than a third are getting it. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria intends to put 2.7 million people on the treatment in the next year, but the recession has hurt its chances of doing so -- the organization is facing a $4 billion budget short-fall. A glimmer of hope from the supply side: In August, Bill Clinton announced an agreement with drugmakers Pfizer and Mylan's Matrix Labs to lower prices on key meds by as much as 60% in developing countries. -- ANNE C. LEE

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Tue, December 01
Float
Oasis of the Seas Sets Sail Fort Lauderdale, Florida

You can't describe Royal Caribbean's new flagship without splashing on the superlatives. The Oasis of the Seas is the longest (1,187 feet), tallest (240 feet), widest (208 feet), heaviest (225,000 gross registered tons), and most expen-sive ($1.4 billion) passenger ship ever launched. As its 6,296 guests (that's 40% more than the next biggest boat) cruise the Caribbean, they can entertain themselves with a glut of floating firsts, from the outdoor, tree-lined park to a cocktail bar in an elevator to performances of Hairspray in the 1,350-seat theater. The only thing this pleasure ark lacks? Animals, two of each. -- THEUNIS BATES

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Tue, December 01
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25th anniversary of the first mandatory seat-belt law in the u.s.

Live free or die, indeed: Twenty-five years after the first state law requiring buckling up took effect in New York, only New Hampshire still lacks one. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the economic benefits of seat-belt laws -- in dollars saved from prevented injuries and deaths -- exceeds $3 billion per year. So why is New Hampshire holding out? "The small minority who are against it are very passionate," says state representative Sally Kelly, sponsor of the latest proposed seat-belt law. The Union Leader, New Hampshire's largest newspaper, wrote an editorial earlier this year claiming, "There will be no stopping the flood of laws that will come, all to protect us from ourselves." If only it were so easy. -- ZW

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