I may have mentioned some or all of this already, on the blog. But I feel like doing a list. Just cuz.

So, 10 random facts about Abu Dhabi and/or the United Arab Emirates.

1. All the tap water in the country … comes from desalination plants. I brush my teeth in water that used to be part of the Persian/Arabian Gulf. Average rainfall here is about 3 inches a year.

2. The population of the UAE is something like 6 million, but only about 900,000 are Emiratis — that is, Arabs whose families are native to the region. The other 85 percent of the 6 million are expats. (To put that into perspective, imagine the U.S. with, say, 200 million natives living among 1.3 billion foreigners.)

3.  The average high temperature here in August is 106 degrees. Read that again. The average high is 106. So for every August day of a balmy 102, we have one of 110.

4. The UAE has the world’s largest carbon footprint on a per-capita basis. More than the U.S., more than China. It’s all the air conditioning, the SUVs, cheap gas and desalination plants.

5.  We pay no income tax,  in the UAE. Might want to read that again. No … income … tax. When someone says “you will be paid X amount” … you actually take home X amount. No withholding. You get it all in your paycheck. Those Tea Party people might like to know.

6. We pay no sales tax, either. No VAT. Nothing. If a pair of shoes cost $40 … you don’t end up paying $45 or something. You pay $40. A price in a store is what it says it is.

7. Adultery is against the law. But polygamy is OK.

8. The world’s emptiest desert — the Rub al Kahli or “Empty Quarter” — begins about 10 miles south of here. Not even the Bedouin cross it, and that could be because it is 250,000 square miles — bigger than France.

9.  If I had a helicopter, I could be in Iranian airspace in an hour.

10.  The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, is in the UAE, in the city of Dubai. It opened earlier this month, and stands 828 meters (2,720  feet) tall. By comparison, the Empire State Building is 381 meters and 1,250 feet — less than half the height of the Burj.